Gods In Love
by Planeswalker
Summary: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings, primarily Draco x Hermione x Ron, and other exciting pairings I don’t want to give away :3
1. Chapter 1

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 1: In which Madame L's opens and events are set in motion

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Author's notes: This is going to be an odd story, I can tell you right away. It's going to start out on a more comic note and possibly get more serious and maybe even a little dark :) Enjoy!

ALSO: This story takes place in an alternate reality where Voldemort is not actively a threat. It is assumed by the general populace that Voldemort is dead. The Triwizard Tournament went off without a hitch in their 4th year, WITHOUT Harry. So the events of the books are the same up until then.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (primarily Hermione x Draco, and other exciting pairings I don't want to give away :3).

O0O0O0O

Hermione blinked; once, twice. Her mouth hung wide open.

"Did he just honestly say what I think he said?"

Harry, one eyebrow raised, his expression unreadable, responded:

"Um, yeah. If he said 'mandatory sexual education classes for all upper year students'..."

Hermione cast an eye around the Great Hall. The reactions around her varied from confusion to excitement to irritation. Dumbledore stood at the pulpit and took in the students' faces with an amused smile. A lazy voice floated from the far end of the Hall:

"Is there any particular reason you've chosen _this_ year to instate this colossal waste of our time?"

Dumbledore chuckled, the perpetual sparkle in his eye shining to the forefront.

"As a matter of fact, Mr. Malfoy, there is."

With this statement the buzz of talk in the Hall ceased, replaced with the waiting silence of curiosity. The headmaster went on:

"What many of you do not know, is that a new shop is opening in Hogsmeade. One of... dubious nature. Because of its proximity to the school, many of your parents have demanded that it be closed. One of our staff simply suggested instead that you be taught to use responsibly the... selection of items available therin. I am inclined to agree with this suggestion."

The silence continued on a moment after he spoke, and then exploded into hushed chatter.

"A sex shop in Hogsmeade!"

"No way!"

"Damn, I'm not seventeen for another month..."

Dumbledore spoke up. "The first trip to Hogsmeade this year will take place in two weeks."

He smiled conspiratorially. "But the store won't be open yet. Enjoy your dinner!"

O0O0O0O

The sign on the surprisingly well-kept building at the end of the row confirmed it. It read 'Madame L's Sex Shop' in a sort of old English font that caused a person to expect the words 'Ye Olde' somewhere upon it. The words 'opening soon' were pasted just below the engraving on the sign.

"Well, that settles it." announced Harry. "It's real."

Ron and Hermione hung back a foot or two looking moderately sheepish. Harry turned, heading back towards the other shops in Hogsmeade and Ron followed closely on his heels. Hermione lingered a moment longer, regarding the dark windows of the two-story brick. Suddenly feeling quite exposed, she hurried off after her companions.

Draco Malfoy slipped silently from the shadows of a nearby alley.

'_So the mudblood is intrigued, is she?'_

Draco filed this information away amongst his other cunningly gathered tidbits under 'Possible Future Blackmail', and retrieving his Hand of Glory from within his robes, slid back into the dark.

O0O0O0O

The next morning, Ron lunged bolt upright in bed, quivering like spring steel.

"Ron..." mumbled Harry, still mostly asleep, "what on _Earth_ is your problem lately?"

In response, Ron grasped fistfuls of is ginger hair, drew up his knees and hid his face in the blankets covering them.

"Auuughnminee." is very much what his response resembled.

Harry fumbled around on his bedside table for his glasses, eventually finding them and putting them on. As Ron came into focus across the room, Harry asked:

"Could you say that again with less blanket in your mouth?"

Ron looked up, his wide blue eyes a stark contrast to his flushed face.

"It's Hermione..." he rasped, "I dream about her almost every night... She's- she's like a tigress! She just _savages_ me and-" Ron uttered a strangled moan and flopped over sideways, burying his face in blankets again.

After a moment, he looked over at Harry.

"Mate, I just don't know what to do! I can't say a word to her without sounding a _complete_ fool, and I always insult her by accident and she hates me _anyways_ and-" he took a deep breath. "I'm buggered Harry. There's just no way."

"Oh come on, Ron."

Harry put on what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Why don't you just try asking her out?"

Ron pushed himself back into a sitting position

"...You've got to be kidding me. She'd turn me down for sure, and then things'd be all weird, because she'd know I like her and all three of us couldn't hang out together anymore."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Suit yourself, but you'll never get her be sitting around. Remember Krum? She seems to like the aggressive types or something..."

Ron's face darked at the mention of Krum, and he grunted a noncommital monosyllabic response, lying down once more and rolling over.

"Well," said Harry, throwing on his robes in rather a hurry to avoid another rant about how much Ron hated Krum, "see you at breakfast."

Except for Ron, the room was empty. Bits of the dream continued to bubble up from his subconscious, popping into his mind. He reached into his boxers and grasped his massive hardon. Thinking of her, his hand moved on its own until he came, gasping, into the sheets.

"I can't believe I just did that..." Ron muttered, reaching for his wand on the bedside table with his free hand. "_Evanesco_." he muttered, accidentally disapparating his favourite pair of boxers along with the dirty sheets.

"It's going to be one of those days, isn't it?"

O0O0O0O

It was.

That day began the mandatory sex ed classes, and Ron, by pure luck, ended up in Snape's class.

Upper year students (fifth through seventh years) were assigned to teachers of their own gender by a lottery which had been conducted overnight. The results were owled in with the morning mail. Harry would be in Professor Vector's class.

"Not too bad, I guess."

"I'm in Professor Sevenstone's class." said Hermione.

"Who?" asked Ron.

Hermioned sighed. "Don't you know about the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor? She didn't arrive until today, so I have no idea what she's like."

"Her class can't be worse than Snape's..." grumbled Ron.

O0O0O0O

It wasn't.

Firstly, Ginny and Hermione were in the same class, and were at this point thick as thieves. The situation was already less intimidating because of the friendly company. The class was split fairly equally into members of each of the four houses, so no one felt alienated.

At precisely 9:00, the professor came strolling down the stairs from her adjoining office.

She was, in a word, gorgeous. She was neither short nor tall, but obviously quite curvy. She wore dark robes belted at the waist, emphasizing her hourglass figure. Her light brown hair tumbled to her waist in loose curls, and her eyes, the palest green Hermione had even seen, were astonishingly catlike. Her full lips curved into a smile, revealing perfectly straight teeth (one noticed these things when one's parents were both dentists...).

The students' reactions varied from awe to naked jealousy.

"My name is Professor Deia Sevenstone." Her voice was rich, deep and resonant. "This morning I'll be running your sexual education seminar. I apologize for any inconvenience to you, the students, as these seminars were my idea."

She finished descending the stairs and had a seat on her desk, facing the class.

"So girls," she began, leaning forward with a conspiratorial smile, "any questions?"

O0O0O0O

"Any and all questions shall be ignored." intoned Snape, glaring rather more petulantly than usual at the students of the class.

Ron, thankfully, was sitting fairly close to the rear of the classroom. He and Ernie MacMillan were the only non-Slytherin students however, making him fairly conspicuous despite his seating location.

Snape droned on: "We will be watching an educational video sphere."

He walked to the front of the classroom and flicked his wand dismissively, summoning forth a film of silvery mist that hung in front of the blackboard. He proceeded to the centre of the class where he inserted a dusty sphere he had produced from somewhere inside his robes into a small black box. He tapped the box once, and the mist at the front of the class formed itself into a small blurry man with a funny little moustache and old-fashioned robes.

He spoke, his voice slightly garbled, presumable from the age of the device.

"Hello boys and girls! Today we will be discussing the facts about sexual intercourse!"

Ron stared at the little man in horror. He sounded too cheery by _far_, and there was something disturbingly martial about that moustache...

"First," the little man began, his eyebrows twitching oddly, "we're going to discuss some of the myths about auto-eroticism, that is to say, _masturbation_." The man looked a little angry as he stressed this word, his eyes sweeping the classroom. Ron was certain he felt the beady eyes of the silver man pause on him as he remembered that morning's exploits.

"Don't bother taking notes, boys and girls, there's only one rule: Don't do it! Masturbation can lead to such problems as webbed fingers, hair on the tongue and deafness!"

Ron and Ernie exchanged flabbergasted expressions across the aisle. This was _definitely_ going to be one of those days...

O0O0O0O

Ron entered the Gryffindor common room at the end of the day and trudged over to a free chair near Harry, Hermione and Ginny, who had been talking excitedly (along with most of the other students in the common room). They fell silent when they saw Ron's face.

"Come now Ron," spoke Ginny after a moment, "it couldn't have been that bad."

Ron met his sister's gaze murderously.

"It was."

He described in detail the creepy little moustachioed sphere video man ("They still _have_ sphere videos?!" asked Dean Thomas) and how the man had grown angrier and angrier at each mention of sex until, finally infuriated, he had stormed out through the wall of the classroom loudly declaiming at the top of his age-garbled voice: "SEXUAL INTERCOURSE IS A MYTH! NOTHING HAS BEEN PROVEN!"

"Then," continued Ron, glaring at his listeners as if daring them to disagree with him, "Snape made us label biological charts of the male and female reproductive systems! And each of the parts had FACES! _The ovaries wouldn't stop staring at me!!_"

The room was silent.

"Hey Ron..." said Harry, carefully placing a hand on one of Ron's shoulders, "how about we go upstairs , and I can tell you about the useful stuff Professor Vector taught us..."

"Yeah, ok." muttered Ron. The two left the common room.

"Wow..." said Ginny, "I can't believe Snape didn't even teach them any contraceptive spells..." Hermione shrugged, and the two turned back to another Gryffindor female, a classmate of Ginny's, to continue telling her about their own seminar.

"So," Ginny began again, "_that's_ why you have to be careful with engorgement charms."

O0O0O0O

Not a month had gone by that the next trip to Hogsmeade had been planned. Professor Sevenstone (with whom over half of the student body was now enamoured for one reason or another) was to be the head chaperone. She had turned out to be an excellent teacher in all regards; creative, sensitive, intelligent and resourceful.

"Just a reminder," she spoke as the group arrived at Hogsmeade, "I know you are all very excited about the new store," he eyes twinkled in an almost Dumbledorian manner at this, "but there is an age line baring entrance to those younger than seventeen years of age. This magic is very powerful and should not be trifled with." She paused, regarding the students seriously.

"The line was drawn by Dumbledore himself, so unless you want a beard, stay away. I can't promise that any student with a new beard at the end of the day won't be punished again. Now, go play children!" She waved her hands, shooing them away.

Most of the seventh year students made a beeline for 'Madame L's', but Hermione took the opportunity to browse the local bookshop while it was nearly empty. An hour or so later, seventh year students began to appear in the sitting area of the bookshop, giggling and chattering over their new and exciting purchases. As time passed, Hermione's curiosity began to grow . She'd yet to see the inside of even a muggle sex shop yet because there weren't any near her house, and she didn't have any muggle friends to go with. Now was her chance to see one.

She paid for a few books, and headed down the lane.

At the beginning of the long lane leading to the shop there was a new sign which read:

_Shy? Timid? Or do you just need to be discrete? Try out the new _discretionous _charm. It will hide you from view of other people in the shop and even people in the laneway! No one ever need know you came here, but we would appreciate your business. The charm simply wears off when you leave the property!_

_- Madame L_

Hermione considered. This was a more or less perfect arrangement; she could browse in peace and Ron and Harry couldn't tease her for what they didn't know about...

She gave her wand a wave.

"_Discretionous_."

She didn't feel any different, but when she held her hand out in front of her, it was shadowy and indistinct. She started down the laneway, hurrying a little, and surprised at her own excitement.

As she reached out to open the door, it flung suddenly towards her, smashing her hand.

"Ow!"

It was Ron and Harry, each carrying a small bag.

"What the hell was that?" asked Ron, looking around.

"Probably some loser without friends using the _discretionous_ charm." said Draco Malfoy, shoving his way out the door with a pair of large bags.

Hermione glared after him.

'_Jerk,' _she thought, _'I have friends...'_

Once Ron and Harry had passed, Hermione slipped in through the door.

"Wow..."

All manner of curious things filled the shop. There was an area to the right just inside the door with two bookshelves full of erotic literature and magazines. Hermione felt herself blushing deeply. She had never seen so many naked people at once as on the covers of these books and magazines, and certainly never so much sex. From the doorway it looked like an orgy of epic proportions, but in reality consisted of many smaller groups of people having sex in every position imaginable. Some couples sat heaving when they thought no one was looking and they were too tired to go on, and members of other couples or small groups wandered onto nearby book covers to find new partners.

'_It's just sex..._' she told herself. _'Perfectly natural.'_

There were witches with wizards, wizards with wizards, witches with witches, wizards and witches and whatever on Earth _that_ was... One wizard moved towards his female partner on the cover of a magazine with an apparatus that looked like a cross between a plunger and an electric mixer.

"Oh dear..." whispered Hermione, exploring onward.

The selection was astounding; lingerie to make your breasts seem larger and your bottom seem smaller, magical restraints (fuzzy and otherwise) that opened for a safeword (...or not), spells that would insert you into the sexual fantasy daydream of your choice (On the sealed envelope: 'We the company are not responsible for any mess that ensues-'), toys of every description, and-

'_What are these?'_

Hermione picked up a small box from a brightly coloured display. The picture depicted an item about the size and shape of a muggle pager. The packaging read: 'Sexual Match Finder- a self-discovery tool!'.

She reached for a pamphlet from a box attached to the display and read the description:

_Wondering about yourself? This handy little gadget scans you to give you a breakdown of your sexual tendencies, preferences, and potential, not to mention the areas in which you can improve_ (_and other handy applications available to the resourceful). It then goes on to insert your statistics into a network under a pseudonym and finds the most appropriate match for you in your area! You can even send messages to your matches and choose to meet, or not!_

_Guaranteed to give you a perfect sexual match! If you are displeased in any way, return this product for a full refund. That's the Weasley promise!_

"Wait, Weasley?" cried Hermione aloud. Sure enough, there on the back of the pamphlet were Fred and George Weasley, grinning, waving and occasionally jostling each other. She hoped for their sake their mother didn't get wind of this...

Well! She had to buy it now... how could she neglect to support the Weasley twins in their economic undertakings? Not to mention the fact she _was_ awfully curious about her potential and the ways in which she could improve... She hadn't gone much past second base with Krum, and there hadn't really been anyone since. She supposed she was a pretty good kisser, but she was still a virgin. A terrible thought struck her. What if she was never going to be good at sex? The idea of failing at something so important in life frightened her. If there was a way of knowing beforehand... she had to find out! She rushed to the counter and paid for the Sexual Match Finder.

As it happened almost every student in seventh year who visited Madame L's purchased a Weasley & Weasley SMF (which is what students began calling it for short) on that day. The resulting events would change the paths of many of those frequenting Hogwarts... and would simply amuse others...

O0O0O0O

Next Chapter!

- Snape is entered onto the SMF network (but how?! lol You'll see...) and a secret is revealed about his past.

- Hermione learns something unexpected about herself, and finds out about what seems a very unlikely match indeed...

Hopefully you guys have enjoyed the story so far!

Fans of Snape... next chapter will be a happy chapter for you :)

Look for it soon!

Reviews are greatly appreciated.

Planeswalker

PS (to Steph): WIGGLY-WORM!


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 2: In which knowledge is gained

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

Chapter 2, comin' atcha :)

O0O0O0O

Upon his return to the castle after the trip to Hogsmeade Draco burst into his dorm room and slammed the door behind him, dumping his bags from Madame L's on the ground near his bed. The little Draco in his head was rubbing his hands together in a parody of childish glee.

'_What a haul...'_ he thought, grinning. He removed a small black box the size of a pencil case from the drawer in his bedside table placed it in the centre of his bed.

"_Vipera vilis_." he whispered to the box, which suddenly grew to about ten times its original size. The bed groaned under the box's weight.

At its current size, the box's intricate carvings were visible; seven snakes forming a ring around a highly stylized eye, all on a background of hundreds of oak leaves. Draco placed the tip of his wand into a small opening in the centre of the eye, causing a series of clicks to sound within the box. He withdrew his wand and opened the box, in which he kept his most valuable and secret possessions. Draco moved aside his Hand of Glory and a small pile of proscribed dark magic books to make room for his purchases: several sealed envelopes containing instructions for sexual spells, self-tying rope with a password option, a set of handcuffs (old-fashioned lock-and-key; difficult to find in the wizarding world these days), a stack of explicit books and magazines, and a Sexual Match Finder (a green one, of course). He placed everything in the box except for the Sexual Match Finder (or SMF as almost everyone was referring to them already) and then locked and shrank the strongbox and placed it back in his drawer.

Draco excitedly removed the SMF from its packaging and read the instructions for use: 'Simply tap the SMF with your wand to turn it off or on. If it is your first time using it, you will be scanned immediately.'

He tapped the apparatus, and a message appeared on the screen: _Scanning... Codename: Loki. Would you like to select this codename, or insert your own?_ Draco glanced back at the instructions. 'Any question asked by the SMF can be answered by speaking to it.'

"This one's fine." he answered, thinking: _'Perfect, really... Loki, the Norse trickster god; a blonde-haired, blue-eyed troublemaker. Some people even think Loki was a real dark wizard who passed himself off as a god...'_

New text appeared: _Hello Loki! Here are your statistics:_

_- Ability: Good to Excellent_

He frowned. He already thought pretty highly of himself, and disliked the use of the word 'good' to describe his ability.

_- Potential: Outstanding_

'_Well that's more like it.'_

_- You can improve by: thinking more about your partner's desires_

Draco rolled his eyes. _'Whatever.'_

_- Your prefer your partners to be: female; petite, submissive_

Which was true. The SMF had not included that Draco also preferred his partners to be pure-blooded...

_- Your tendencies are to be: dominant, aggressive; bordering on sadistic_

He never would have called himself sadistic, but, now that he thought about it... he smiled. It suited him.

_- Specific target at the moment is: no specific_

_- Total partners:_ _5 [Further breakdown provided upon request_

Overall, he was impressed. It seemed quite accurate. The SMF informed him it would be inserting his statistics onto the network, and would notify him when it had found suitable matches.

Just as Draco was about to put the SMF away, he noticed something odd about it. Unbeknownst to most, including his teachers, Draco was a natural at charmwork and could actually see how charms had been lain and often remove them instinctually with unvoiced spells. Because he didn't apply himself in class, he achieved reasonable instead of excellent grades, working only hard enough to please his parents. In his sixth year he had even repaired a set of charmed wardrobes that could be travelled between, and this was after Borgin of the famed dark magic shop 'Borgin and Burkes' had given up on them. Draco had called in a few favours to have one of the wardrobes placed in a hotel room in Hogsmeade, and he often used them to sneak out with friends or love interests. Some nights he had dreams about the wardrobes being used for much more sinister purposes...

He turned the SMF over in his hands. There had been a layer of protective charm work placed upon it. But what was it for? Suddenly, Draco knew. He grabbed his wand and dismissed the excess charmwork. He walked into the common room and pointed the SMF at the first person he saw, another seventh-year Slytherin girl holding a purple SMF, and whispered: "Scan."

It did.

Draco read the screen excitedly: _Hello Loki! I see you are "resourceful" enough to have discovered one of our little devices "other handy applications"... Enjoy!_

_Raven Hunter is already in the database. His/Her statistics are:_

_- Ability: Good_

_- Potential: Excellent_

_- He/She can improve by: watching how she uses her teeth_

_- He/She prefers his/her partners to be: male; tall, dark, thin, intelligent. _

_- His/Her tendencies are to be: dominant, highly energetic, exotic_

_- Specific target at the moment is: Bookworm King_

_- Total partners:_ 3 _[Further breakdown provided upon request_

_- Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: submissive, high energy, open minded, low to medium skill level_

_- Current compatibility with Loki: 18 Percent_

Draco stared in disbelief. This seemed too good to be true. The little Draco in his head was pumping a fist in victory. He pointed his SMF at his next victim; a short, black-haired girl he thought was in sixth year.

_Snow White will be inserted into the database. You may change this codename if you wish. His/Her statistics are:_

_- Ability: Fair (Virgin; 3rd base)_

_- Potential: Good_

_- He/She can improve by: practising _

_- He/She prefers his/her partners to be: male; tall, fair, toned but not too muscular_

_- His/Her tendencies are to be: hesitant, shy, submissive_

_- Specific target at the moment is: Loki_

_- Total partners:_ _1_ _[Further breakdown provided upon request_

_- Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: dominant, patient, high skill level_

_- Current compatibility with Loki: 72 Percent_

The girl left her group of friends and headed towards the dorm rooms. Draco moved to block the way. She blushed when their eyes met.

"Hi, my name's Draco."

"I- I know." she stuttered.

Draco leaned closer to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling slowly.

"What's your name?"

"Mary..." she said, blushing even more violently.

"Mary," he purred in his characteristic drawl, "would you like to take a walk with me? The other day, I found this _interesting _little room that becomes whatever you want it to... even a bedroom..."

O0O0O0O

Before using the device Hermione wanted to see how it worked. Fred and George were geniuses, no doubt, but they were also sneaky, and Hermione wanted to make sure the SMF wouldn't log her true identity. She pulled an advanced charms book from her shelf and sat back down on her bed, looking for the correct spell.

"Aha! _Revelare_!" she said, performing a complicated wrist motion. Several distinct layers of charmwork became visible, all of them quite complicated. She pinpointed the section that records the user's true identity and with another complex manoeuver and "_Eradere_." it was gone. She also happened to notice that topmost layer of charmwork was meant to keep the device from scanning other people than its owner.

'_Fred and George... It's almost like you wanted people to notice... That must be what they meant in their pamphlet with that talk about "resourcefulness" and "other applications"... Well, if they meant for it to be used this way, there's no harm in-' _

The angelic little Hermione in her head was shaking her finger at the demonic little Hermione. _'No, no, no!! That's awfully pervy of you!' _Demonic Hermione rolled her eyes at angelic Hermione. _'You are such a prude. Let's just do it. Do something exciting for once in your life!'_

Heart thumping in her chest, she did, and was mildly surprised that half a dozen people didn't burst into her room to accuse her of being a pervert. She tapped the device to turn it on (she had, of course, already read the entire instruction booklet twice).

_Scanning... Codename: Athene. Would you like to select this codename, or insert your own?_

Hermione smiled. _'Perfect. Greek goddess of wisdom.' _She answered the machine: "Yes, that one will do nicely."Text scrolled onto the screen of her red SMF:

_Hello Athene! Here are your statistics:_

_- Ability: Fair-Good (Virgin; 2__nd__ base)_

_- Potential is: Outstanding_

_- You can improve by: practising._

_- You prefer your partners to be: male; dominant, forward_

_- Your tendencies are to be: submissive; bordering on masochistic, but particular_

_- Specific target at the moment is: none_

_- Total partners:_ 1

_- Characteristics of your ideal partner would be: dominant, aggressive; bordering on sadistic, medium-high skill level_

_Your statistics will now be inserted onto the SMF network. You will notified when acceptable matches for you are found._

She just didn't know what to think. So much of it was accurate, for example, her preferences. But as far as her tendencies... _'Masochistic?? I am _not_ masochistic... one of those crazy people who dress in leather and like being tied up and get off on being humiliated and...' _She suddenly thought back to her time with Victor Krum; he had definitely been the dominant one in their relationship and quite... assertive, that was true. Actually, she remembered the one time during the winter they had gone walking around the castle, and he had shoved her up against the wall and started kissing her. She was certain someone would come around the corner _any second_ and see them like that (and what a position for her to be found in!) but it had truly excited her. And when he had slipped off his mitten and slid his hand up her shirt it had excited her even more... She remembered how cold it had been outside, and how, crushed between Victor and the wall, the bricks had bitten into her shoulder blades. Just thinking about it aroused her somewhat. It was one of her favourite guilty memories.

Surely enough, it was all there; an element of control, an element of humiliation and an element of pain.

She mulled it over for a bit in her mind.

'_Wow. I really am a bit of a masochist.'_

While she waited for more people to scan themselves and get onto the network so the SMF could find her matches... the question remained:

Who would she scan first?

O0O0O0O

Later that day, after his fun with 'Snow White', Draco was prowling the hallways, scanning people for fun. A particularly curvaceous Ravenclaw girl rounded the corner, and Draco was in the process of scanning her when Snape, stalking down in a huff, walked into the line of fire.

Draco covered his mouth in shock. _'Oh God... Snape... do I even want to see this??'_

But his curiosity overcame him in the end... it read:

_Half-blood Prince will be inserted into the database. You may change this codename if you wish._

'_Half-blood Prince?'_ thought Draco, _'What an odd codename. I wonder what it refers to...' _A devilish thought crossed Draco's mind. _'Why don't I just change it to-'_

"Severus Snape." he said to the SMF

_Codename cannot be real name._

"Ugh, fine." muttered Draco, "What about 'Potions Master'?"

_Codename cannot reveal major clues to identity._

Draco sighed. _'Something semi obvious... I know! The first potions master, Greek god of medicine...'_

"Aesculapius"

_New codename accepted. Aesculapius will be inserted into the network. His/Her statistics are:_

_- Ability: Poor (Virgin; 2__nd__ base)_

'_Snape is a virgin.' _Draco snorted, holding back laughter. _'I'd believe it...'_

_- Potential: Excellent_

_- He/She can improve by: improving personal hygiene, practising _

_- He/She prefers his/her partners to be: female; Lily Potter _

_- His/Her tendencies are to be: obsessed with Lily Potter_

_- Specific target at the moment is: Lily Potter _

_- Total partners:_ _2_ _[Further breakdown provided upon request_

_- Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: high skill level, someone who will help him forget Lily Potter_

_Current compatibility with Loki: 3 Percent_

'_Lily Potter?' though Draco, 'As in Harry Potter's mother? ... it can't be. AUGH!! 3?? How am I even 3 percent compatible with Snape?!' _After Draco was done being grossed out about the thought of Snape and sex, and puzzling over the mystery of Lily Potter, he realized he might have inadvertently done some good.

'_Maybe I'll finally get ol' Greasy Hair laid...'_

O0O0O0O

Hermione nipped out into the Gryffindor common room.

'_Now who should I scan?_'

Angelic Hermione frowned in the corner of Hermione's mind.

Ron walked into the common room.

'_Perfect.' _thought Hermione, _'seeing as everyone thinks we should get together for some reason. I can see if there's any sense to the whole mess.'_

She scanned Ron:_ Apollo is already in the database._

'_Sun god; flame-haired. Appropriate enough, I suppose.'_

_His/Her statistics are:_

_Ability: Good_

_Potential: Excellent_

_He/She can improve by: being more confident_

_He/She prefers his/her partners to be: female; curvy, willing to lead, encouraging _

_His/Her tendencies are to be: submissive, tentative, easily intimidated, at times intense _

_Specific target at the moment is: Athene_

_Total partners:_ 3

_Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: dominant, encouraging, high skill level OR submissive, appreciative, low skill level _

_Current compatibility with Athene: 78 Percent_

Before she could formulate a proper thought about what she had just read, Ron spotted her and began walked over.

"Hermione!" he called across the common room.

As Ron stopped to chat with someone else nearer to the door she fumbled with the SMF, managing to shut it off before jamming it into her pocket. Ron arrived where she was standing.

"How's your afternoon been?"

"Oh, good!" she replied a little nervously, hoping he hadn't seen.

"Super. Did you stop by Madame L's and buy all kinds of kinky stuff?" he joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and feigned superiority.

"Oh course not!"

"Yeah, me neither!" said Ron, a little too loudly. "But, um, it would be ok with you, if I _had_ gone- and Harry too. I mean we didn't, but..."

"I went too." whispered Hermione.

Ron sighed with relief, and then grinned.

"I got some cool stuff. What did you buy?"

"None of your business!" said Hermione, more sharply than she had intended. "I mean... you know."

"Yeah."

There was a bit of a silence.

"So..." began Hermione again, "did you have anyone in mind?"

"Anyone in mind for what?" asked Ron, followed immediately by "Oh. That. Well..." Ron's cheeks began turning red. "Well, there is one girl. I think about her all the time... uh..."

Hermione could feel hot and cold creeping up her neck to her face. A strange tightness seized her chest. Was he going to tell her? What would she say if he did? What if the SMF was wrong, and he was about to tell her about some other girl? Was she getting this feeling because she liked Ron? "Yeah..." he went on, "I dunno. I'll tell you about it some time... but we have to head down for dinner Hermione... if we don't leave now, Harry will wonder where we are."

"Oh, of course!" she responded lamely.

As they walked down to the Great Hall, making small talk and joking like usual, she couldn't help wonder: what would it be like to date Ron?

O0O0O0O

AN: Well, that's all for this chapter. I know I said there'd be Snape stuff, but I think I'm going to save the good stuff for the very beginning of next chapter :) I didn't want to jam it at the end of this one, which is getting kinda long. It should be out soon.

So what do you guys think? Seriously, in my opinion, Hermione HAS to be a masochist. Just think of all the school work she does. In her second year she actually took more classes than is physically possible without magic. Self-induced mental anguish. I rest my case.

Please review!

Love and mashed potatoes,

Planeswalker


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 3: In which things heat up

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: I've just become aware that has been erasing my percent signs. So any numbers regarding compatibility were refering to percentage. I've gone back and added the work 'percent' where the sign used to be, lol. So there we go, no more of that.

Welcome to Chapter 3. Please keep your arms and legs inside the chapter until it comes to a complete stop.

O0O0O0O

After her last class on a Monday, Professor Deia Sevenstone was sitting in her office with a peculiar little device she had just confiscated from a student in her class. The student in question had been pointing the device at other students and giggling with her friend.

Deia prodded it with her wand, and words appeared upon the screen:

_Lady Catseye will be inserted into the database. You may change this codename if you wish. His/Her statistics are:_

_- Ability: Outstanding_

_- Potential: Outstanding +_

It went on to list several other things as she turned it over in her hands. Seeing the letters 'SMF' printed onto the face of the device above the screen she realized that this must be one of the infamous Sexual Match Finders she'd been hearing about. But how had it scanned her, who was not the owner of the device? She swept her wand over the machine, causing the charms laid upon it to become visible.

It was clear that a layer of charmwork had been removed. A tricky little spell, too! Only the most advanced of seventh year students could have managed it... certainly not the giggling fools in the back of her class. They had been Slytherin students. Altering a self-help device for personal gain certainly had the touch of a Slytherin.

This was an excellent excuse to ask around for the whereabouts of Professor Snape.

O0O0O0O

Professor Severus Snape was stalking down the potions corridor after his last class of the day, a first year potions class.

'_The idiots can hardly tell the top of a cauldron from the bottom of one...' _he fumed silently to himself. Suddenly he was aware of a hand on his shoulder. He swung about.

"What?" he snarled before seeing the speaker.

It was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, whom he hated on principle because she occupied the position he could not.

"Pardon me, Professor Sevenstone, I thought you were a student, or someone else come along to waste my precious time." he said acidly, "_Clearly_ you are neither one of these things."

She smiled, "And precious time it is, Professor Snape, but I shall have to steal a bit of it. If you could join me in here a moment?" She motioned to a door to their right.

Snape sneered. "I suppose you're not very familiar with our humble establishment as of yet, Professor Sevenstone, but the door to which you are motioning opens into a broomcloset."

Quickly glancing one way down the hall and then the other, she opened the door and pushed him inside.

"Quite a fine broomcloset though!" she exclaimed, closing and locking the door behind them.

Snape, now crowded into a tiny, damp, mouldy smelling broomcloset with an extremely attractive (albeit probably insane) professor, was for once in his life at a loss for a single rude, sarcastic comment.

Professor Sevenstone took a breath, and spoke. "_Lumos._ Now, I'm going to cut to the chase. Whether you remember or not, I was a student in your seventh year Potions class the very first year you taught here at Hogwarts. The youngest Potions Master in several decades... I was entranced by your genius. I'm not sure to put this, but... I'd like to get to know you... better..."

Snape stared blankly into her cat-like eyes, illuminated by the soft wandlight. Was there any reason why she could she not have brought this up over tea?

And suddenly, she was kissing him.

'_Merlin's balls! What on Earth?!'_

He had no idea what to do with his hands, and so they hovered awkwardly over her body as she kissed him, and slowly, he began to kiss her back. Grabbing his hands, she placed one on her waist and the other on one of her breasts. She squeezed his hand, encouraging him to feel, which he did hesitantly at first, and eventually more confidently.

Snape panicked silently, all the while becoming more and more aroused. Deia was crushed close against him in the small, dark closet, her hands wandering over his body. Slowly, one of her hands started shifting his robes and reaching inside of them down the front of his pants to slowly and firmly stroke him. Snape groaned into her mouth.

She broke away for air.

"So Professor, enjoying yourself?"

"Merlin's beard," he responded, "at least call me Severus."

She laughed, kneeling down, pressed right against him in the tight space.

"And you can call me Deia." She took him in her mouth.

Snape let our an incoherent moan, fumbling for his wand to cast _muffliato_ on the room. Looking for something to steady himself, he grabbed hold of a dusty shelf with one hand, and a handful of her thick, wavy hair with the other.

"Mm- you're awfully good at this-" he managed to gasp.

Her chuckles sent vibrations through him, making him weak in the knees. As if it weren't enough, she began to increase her pace. Soon, with a clipped cry, Snape came, gripping the shelf so hard it broke, sending jars and bottles of cleaning supplies crashing to the floor, exploding their contents throughout the tiny room. Snape managed to pull up his pants as he stumbled with Deia into the hallway, a cloud of multicoloured dust floating out after them.

Thanking his lucky stars there were no students in the hall at that moment, Snape cleaned the mess with a flick of his wand, and was about to move the dust from himself when Deia stopped him, and with a sly grin asked:

"Why not instead come up to my apartments for a shower?"

Snape offered a rare smile, and agreed that was an excellent idea.

O0O0O0O

Malfoy, who was done class for the day, was making his way back to the Slytherin common room. Surely, he would again be inundated with students willing to pay through the nose to transform their 'self-help' devices into instruments of perversion. He grinned to himself. It wasn't as though he even needed the pocket change...

Suddenly, he spotted Harry amongst the crowd of students walking down the hallway. He glanced down at the SMF in his hand and then back at Harry.

'_Excellent...' _thought Malfoy, _'What a perfect way to get some dirt on Potter.' _He scanned him. The statistics read:

_Lionheart is already in the database. _

Draco rolled his eyes. _'Lionheart... Figures he'd have some faggy nickname like that...'_

_His/Her statistics are:_

_- Ability: Great_

_- Potential: Legendary_

_- He/She can improve by: practising_

_- He/She prefers his/her partners to be: female; a match for him tendency-wise _

_- His/Her tendencies are to be: forward, enthusiastic, one who enjoys extended sessions of sexual activity, one who enjoys challenges and varied positions, dedicated to one partner. _

_- Specific target at the moment is: Demoness (repeat partner)_

_- Total partners:_ 2 _[Further breakdown provided upon request_

_- Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: forward, enthusiastic, one who enjoys extended sessions of sexual activity, one who enjoys challenges and varied positions, dedicated to one partner. _

_- Current compatibility with Loki: -26 Percent_

Draco started at the results, his plan to embarrass Harry clearly having backfired. _'Legendary?!' _he screamed internally,_ 'That's not even in the HANDBOOK!!' _He glanced up at Harry who was walking with Ginny. Draco's eyes narrowed. _'Of course his girl is the Weasley. Well, I wish them the joy of their befreckled, blood-traitor babies.'_

With this, Draco stormed down the hall in the other direction.

O0O0O0O

Hermione was sitting in the Great Hall with Ginny, eating dinner. Ron and Harry were sitting a little further down than usual, whispering excitedly about something.

"What's _with_ them lately?" asked Hermione, clearly exasperated.

Ginny looked sheepish. "Well..." she responded, meekly meeting Hermione's gaze, "it might be partially my fault..."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. What could she have done to provoke such greater than normal stupidity in Harry and Ron (but _especially_ Harry, who was usually quite a bit more sensible than he had been these past two weeks).

"Well firstly, I know for a fact that Harry isn't a virgin anymore."

Hermione's eyes opened wide, and she glanced over at Harry. It was true she had noticed a change in him recently; he seemed more relaxed, more confident...

"Then what about Ron?" asked Hermione, _'I know he's not a virgin...' _she thought to herself, _'so it can't be that he's lost his virginity as well...'_

"Well, that's obvious." Ginny answered, "Ron finally has someone to talk to about sex."

"Oh." said Hermione.

Her red-haired friend eyed her suspiciously between bites of shepherd's pie. "You're not surprised that Ron isn't a virgin? I mean, _I_ can hardly believe it!"

"Well, um, uh," blustered Hermione, looking for an explanation. She stopped a moment, and then admitted the truth. "Well Ginny," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "I scanned him."

"Oh, of course you- wait, what?" Ginny dropped her fork, now intent on hearing Hermione's answer. "How is that possible?

"Well, I found a way to let me use the SMF to scan other people... It's terrible isn't it?"

"Terribly brilliant!" cried Ginny. Hermione shushed her loudly, and then lowered her voice again.

"I do _not_ want half the school knowing."

Ginny elbowed her friend playfully. "So you've got a bit of a pervy side too, don't you Hermione?"

Hermione blushed and looked at her plate, poking at a lonely pea with her fork. "I just wanted to see if it was possible..."

"Sure, sure." laughed Ginny. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. So, how compatible are you with my brother?"

"I think it was 78 percent." said Hermione.

Ginny seemed moderately impressed. "Not too bad. If I were you, I sleep with him."

"... you'd sleep with your brother?" giggled Hermione.

"AUGH! NO!" yelled Ginny, once again attracting the attention of half the Gryffindor table. "I _said_ if I were _you_." Ginny grinned. "Besides, even if I had a brother complex, I'm already sleeping with Harry."

Hermione had to fight to keep from expelling a mouthful of milk through her nose.

"For real?!"

Ginny's grin widened. "Oh yeah. And Hermione," she sighed, "he's _great_. I can't even believe how quickly he's getting better... I mean, in no time at all I'm sure he'll be the most spectacular lover that ever lived."

The two girls laughed. Hermione grew suddenly serious.

"How on Earth can your brother talk to Harry knowing he's sleeping with you?"

Ginny bit her lip. "Well, he doesn't. Know that is. He doesn't know yet..."

As if on cue, Ron flew to his feet, sending cutlery and dishes flying in all directions as the tablecloth caught in his robes.

"WITH MY SISTER?! AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

Ron turned and stormed from the Great Hall, followed by the silence of every student.

"Ron! I'm- I'm sorry!" yelled Harry after him, his voice echoing through the quiet of the large stone room, "I was going to tell you!"

Ginny buried her face in her hands as Harry glanced helplessly over at her. Most of the student body was either staring at Harry or Ginny. Snickers floated over from the Slytherin table.

"Well," Ginny muttered through her fingers, "it looks like the cat's out of the bag..."

O0O0O0O

Hermione arrived breathlessly in the empty Gryffindor common room just as Ron was starting up the stairs to the boys dormitories.

"Wait!" she cried, "Ron, don't be angry with him!"

Ron stopped, his hands curling and uncurling into fists. He swung about suddenly, walking decisively towards Hermione, yelling as he approached her: "Of course you'd take his side! It's not right for a bloke to be shagging his best friend's sister without telling him!"

"You're right, Ron!"

They were face to face.

"There you again, taking his s- what?"

"Ron, you're right."

Silence.

"Well, erm, of course I am."

"Harry was probably worried you'd react, well, like this. And so he didn't know how to tell you."

Ron sighed angrily, crossing his arms. "If he'd only told me right away, I'd have-"

"Reacted exactly like this."

Ron opened his mouth to speak, looking indignant, and then closed it again. "You're right, I guess."

"You should... probably apologize to him."

"Yeah... I suppose..." Ron muttered, trailing off.

The silence between them deepened as Ron thought about how he would approach Harry for forgiveness and Hermione took the opportunity to more closely examine Ron's features. He brushed at his red hair, in need of a haircut, as it kept falling into his pale eyes. She thought his long nose suited his face perfectly and his lips, not too thin, looked great for kissing...

'_Whoa! When did I start thinking this way about Ron?'_

'_Since you scanned him.' _answered another voice.

'_Oh, it's true. It's just that when he's angry he looks so...so... forceful... so strong...'_

'_Masochist.' _interjected the second voice.

Hermione frowned. She didn't know about these masochist tendencies of hers yet, but she did know she was quite attracted to Ron. When would she next get the chance to speak to him alone like this? She could feel her mouth drying and her face reddening.

"Ron... um..."

"Yeah?" he asked distractedly, running through his imminent apology to Harry in his head.

Hermione stuttered, and then spat the entire sentence out in one breath: "I- I- IwaswonderingifyouwantedtogototheHalloweendancewithme."

Ron looked up, suddenly paying attention again. "What was that?"

Bitting her lip and wondering if she was making a mistake, Hermione repeated her query: "I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Halloween dance with me... like, as a date."

Fighting not to look too surprised or excited, Ron's eyes opened wide as he pursed his lips.

"I mean, like as a one-time thing, probably." she added hastily.

"Yeah sure!" responded Ron, a little too quickly to be subtle about his happiness. "That's a great idea! We can even make it a double date with Ginny and Harry!" Ron looked sheepish. "I'm going to apologize now..." He grinned. "I'll see you later Hermione!" Ron took off in the wrong direction and was halfway up the stairs to the dorms before he realized it. "Ha! Forgot where I was going!" he blustered joyfully, running back down the stairs and towards the portrait hole, "Catch you later!" As soon as he left the room Hermione heaved a relieved sigh.

'_There.' _she thought,_ 'I've done it. That wasn't so bad...'_ But in the back of her mind she was already beginning to dread the dance. What would she wear? Would they have fun? Would they be misconstrued as a real couple? Would Ron try to make a move on her?

"Augh!" she cried to the empty room, flopping into the nearest armchair. _'What on _Earth_ was I thinking?'_

O0O0O0O

At that very moment back in the Great Hall, Draco Malfoy was sitting eating dinner. After the laughter from the Potter/Weasley debacle had faded, a thought struck him. _'I've been scanning all these people, but I haven't even looked at the matches the SMF has found for me yet!'_ He pulled it out of his pocket and turned it on, asking for the list of generated matches.

There at the top of the list was a match at 94 percent compatibility.

"What a match. Athene, hm?" he muttered to himself. A sly smile crept onto his lips. "I think I should arrange a meeting with my goddess..."

End Chapter 3

O0O0O0O

Oh ho ho!! Here we go folks:D Look for some more Snape-type stuff next chapter as well as the first encounter of Loki and Athene ;)

Thanks for reading, and I encourage you all to leave reviews!! I want to know what you guys think! What did you like? What didn't you like? What are you hoping will happen? Where do you think it's all going? Pretty, pretty please! I love you comments!

- Planeswalker


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 4: In which Hermione remains the eternal optimist and identities are revealed

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

O0O0O0O

As Hermione was changing into her pyjamas for bed, she reached into her pocked to take out the SMF, which was unusually warm to the touch.

'_A message!' _A strange feeling filled her chest. _'What dreadful timing... I've just made a date with Ron for the dance next week... Well, it won't hurt to _look_...'_

The message, from a user named 'Loki', read:

_From god to goddess; we have a 94 percent compatibility rating. I certainly think that's worth exploring. I want to meet you. When can I see you? _

'_Oh my.' _thought Hermione, _'I'd really like to see him before I agree to get involved...'_

Then an idea came to her. _'Well, since the Halloween dance is a masquerade dance... we could see each other there without giving away our identities!' _

She wrote a reply: _'I'll go to the dance next Friday as Athene. I'll be on the lookout for Loki. If what I see pleases me, I'd love to meet.' _

She could hardly believe her own audaciousness! Was this really what she wanted to say?

She whispered a single word to the device in her hand:

"Send."

O0O0O0O

Snape awoke with a start. He was in bed; but not his own.

'_Where am I?'_

Something stirred to his right. It was soft and warm, and rolled towards him, snuggling into the crook of his arm and wrapping a leg around one of his. Relief and something resembling joy flooded him. He remembered it all, and it had been real.

They'd gone up to her apartments. They'd taken to the shower... together. She'd even washed his hair. If he closed his eyes he could almost feel her fingers massaging his scalp and the warm, soapy water running down his back; her breasts pressed against his back; her fingers walking around his hips and between his legs to stroke him from behind...

Snape hated water. It was not that he hated feeling wet, but the unbearable feeling of dampness and coldness that water left him with. Tumbling straight into bed with a beautiful woman after showering had certainly solved _that_ problem. Snape grinned, glancing over at Deia. He had to fight back a groan of pleasure at the memories her sensual features, now peaceful with sleep, sparked in his mind... Deia moaning above him, _beneath _him.

'_But why me? She's- she's gorgeous! She could have any man she wants!'_

Snape rolled slowly onto his side to face her, careful not to wake her. He ran a hand over her long, thick hair and traced her full lower lip with his thumb. After a moment of hesitation, he kissed her, gently nipping at her lower lip. She moaned, half asleep, and returned his kiss, her eyes fluttering open; fairytale princess style.

"Mm, Severus, good morning." She reached a hand around his back and grabbed his backside.

Snape yelped. _'Well, she knows it's me, that's a good sign...'_

They began kissing again, her hands wandering... but all the while Snape couldn't shake the thought from his head. _'Why me? Why _me_? Is she _toying_ with me? Is this some kind of joke? Is-?'_

She stopped abruptly and sat up in bed, her hair not _quite_ covering her perfect breasts...

'_Sweet mother of Merlin...'_

"Severus."

"Hm, yes, I'm listening."

She frowned, and then laughed. "You seem preoccupied. Is anything the matter?"

'_Tell her! Now's your chance!'_

"Well, I..." Snape rolled over in bed to face the wall as he felt a flush rising to his cheeks. "Why on Earth would you ever want me?"

Deia rolled him back over forcefully, and swung a leg over him, straddling him. She placed both hands on his shoulders, pinning him to the bed.

"So you're questioning my judgement? My taste?"

Snape stammered desperately for a moment, his mind caught between finding an answer to her questions and _feeling _her... so soft, warm, God he just wanted to grab her hips and-

"Severus!" she cried, semi-frustrated.

"N-no! Of course not!" he managed.

"You're who I want." she stated simply and then smiled playfully, "Do you want _me_?" she asked, grinding into him.

"Well of course!" he spluttered.

"Then take me!"

"I WILL!" He flipped her over onto the mattress and obliged her.

When an offer that good came along, Severus Snape didn't have to be told twice...

O0O0O0O

Saturday morning, Draco was checking his SMF messages over breakfast. He had received a reply from Athene. He smiled. _'Hm, a little pushy... I like it...'_. After breakfast he slipped back to his dorm roomto create his response: _'I'll be there, and trust me, you won't be able to miss me.'_

Draco's mind was whirling. He only had one week to put together his costume. He needed robes, and he needed to commission a mask. If he'd been anyone else, it might of been impossible. Luckily for him, the Malfoy name carried a lot of weight, and the Malfoy wallet, even more.

O0O0O0O

Saturday afternoon there was an excursion into Hogsmeade. Students crowded into specialty shops searching for costumes for the dance. Hermione and Ginny poked around in one little store, elbowing through the crowds of students who'd also left their costumes until the last minute.

"So what're you going to be, Hermione? Any ideas?"

"I'm going as Athene."

"... that's kinda lame."

Hermione stuck her tongue out at Ginny. The two laughed. Hermione looked around, making sure neither Harry nor Ron were nearby, and spoke in a whisper. "It's my SMF username... someone wants to meet me..."

Ginny giggled, and covered her mouth. "Hermione! What's gotten _into_ you lately! Aren't you going with my brother?"

Hermione looked pained. "That's the thing, I am. But I got the message after I set up the date with Ron. Besides, I just want to _see_ the person as a back-up incase the Ron thing doesn't work out or something..."

Ginny eyed her friend suspiciously, and began pawing through a bin of costume pieces like cat ears, devil horns and bunny tails. "So how good is this match? I mean, it must be pretty high in order for you to consider seeing someone while being Ron's date... I wouldn't care, but I know stuff like that is important to you."

"It's, um, ninety-four percent."

Opening her eyes wide, Ginny dropped the cat ears she was holding back into the bin. "Are you kidding me?! Matches that good hardly EVER come along! The highest I've heard of so far is some Ravenclaw couple at like, eighty-seven percent. That's ri_di_culous Hermione. Go for it."

Hermione poked at a pair of devil horns that lit up when you touched them. "Do really think so?"

Ginny looked incredulously at her friend. "Yeah! I really do! Even _you_ should let loose every now and then."

Hermione poked Ginny in the side, who squeaked. "So what are you going to as then? And do you have any idea what Harry and Ron as going as? Every time I ask they just laugh hysterically..."

Looking exasperated, Ginny shook her head. "I have no idea, but it can't be good though, I'm sure of that much... whenever they start scheming..." She rolled her eyes, "God..." She looked a little sad, "I don't know what I'm going as yet."

The girls moved on to a different part of the store, looking through racks of costumes. Hermione pulled out a long Grecian-style dress just as Ginny grabbed a short french maid dress; the girls had matching ecstatic looks up their faces. Seeing each other's extremely different costumes and matching facial expressions, they burst into laughter again.

"It's a wonder," Hermione managed to gasp, "that we even get along."

"Well..." pronounced Ginny deliberately, "there's just no accounting for taste, is there?"

And to the complete confusion of Harry and Ron, they dissolved into laughter once more.

O0O0O0O

Tucking a loose ringlet back into the golden ribbon entwined into her up-do, Hermione smiled, and picked up her mask. Uncharmed, the mask was just a gold coloured piece of cloth in the shape of a mask, but after using the spell '_figerefacias' _it conformed itself to the shape of her face and clung there, much more practical than plastic muggle masks that slipped all over the place and didn't breathe at all. Around the eyes of the mask Hermione had affixed white owl feathers (the owl being a symbol of Athene's wisdom, of course) that swept away from the eye around the side of her face in the shape of wings. She stepped back from the mirror in her dorm room to view herself in full length and sighed. Perfect. The white pleated Grecian dress had been carefully altered by Ginny and herself to show a little more cleavage and was cinched at the waist with more crisscrossed golden ribbon. At her neck dangled a necklace with a small golden dagger, symbolizing Athene's prowess in battle. Ginny had done her make-up for her; dark smoky eyes that contrasted the brightness of the mask and relatively pale glossy lips that begged to be kissed. She was to meet Ron, Harry and Ginny at the dance, so she headed for the Great Hall.

O0O0O0O

She felt the dance before she saw or heard it, with two hands on one of the large double doors of the Great Hall. The heavy bass of a rock tune was beating through the door like a living thing. The music flowed over her like a wave as she pushed the door open and was simultanous momentarily blinded by the flashing lights on the dance floor. Piano chords floated over the electric mess of the guitars. As her eyes adjusted to the multicolored lights she could see hundreds of costumed students, faces all covered by various styles of masks; demons, ghosts, princesses, muggle police officers, cats, dragons, mummies- every character and creature imaginable seemed to be somewhere in the room; either sitting at one of the many round tables around the periphery of the room, that took the place of the usual long rectangular ones, or on the dance floor.

Suddenly, across the room, someone caught her eye:

He wore traditional black wizard's robes of a material that seemed to hover just a little too long behind him as he moved. His mask was black, but seemed to be made of some strangely luminous metal, and had a thin Norse-style band of silver running from the top of the middle of the mask down to the end of the nose, and was rivetted with round bronze pins. The mask covered the entire face except for an open-ended square of space running along the bottom of the nose and just beside the mouth on either side. This made the mask end in two points at the jawline, giving it an aspect reminiscent of having two great fangs, and also highlighting the smirk of the wearer. Besides his mask, the most remarkable thing about him was that his pale blonde hair had been put into spikes; but they were obviously spikes not held up by any muggle hair product, as they swayed softly on their own, a little like flames. The overall effect was quite breath-taking.

'_The Norse-style mask, the fangs- this is... this is Loki...'_

As if knowing her thoughts were of it, his pale eyes, fair burning in contrast to his black mask, stared straight into hers. A grin unfurled upon his lips.

'_He recognizes me.'_

And as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared back into the crowd.

'_I have to meet him.'_

Hermione walked deeper into the room to look for him, but was soon pounced upon by Ginny in her french maid dress and black rhinestoned domino accompanied by two of the oddest-looking individuals at the dance.

'_Oh my God- It's Harry and Ron.'_

Harry and Ron were dressed as Father Christmas and Rudolf the reindeer, respectively. Hermione burst into laughter. Ron was wearing a simple brown domino, and Harry had no mask at all because his face as covered in a full, white snowy beard. She pulled on Harry's beard, and met resistence.

"Don't tell me..." she began, through giggles.

"It's real." muttered Ginny, obviously not impressed. Hermione snorted and began laughing all over again when she realized that they had managed to charm Ron's nose so that it actually lit up.

"This is pretty funny, guys."

Harry and Ron beamed. They had approval from Hermione; it was ok. Harry gave a whoop as he and Ron headed for the other side of the room to show off their costumes. Ron gave Hermione an apologetic look as he was dragged by his friend.

"Save me a dance, OK?"

"Sure!" called Hermione, who rolled her eyes as soon as Ron was out of sight. "So much for being my date..."

Ginny shrugged. "My brother's an idiot, we both know that." She grinned, "Besides, aren't you going to meet that guy? Now's the perfect chance..."

Hermione pulled her SMF out of her purse to find it warm; she had a message:

_Meet me outside in the small garden near the quad with the fountain._

She showed Ginny, biting her lip nervously.

"Good luck, Athene."

O0O0O0O

He watched her enter the garden. She wasn't wearing a coat; in white and gold she looked like a shivering dove. He split from the shadow of the wall and approached her from behind, curling his fingers gently around her waist. She started under his hands.

"Hello there, goddess."

He'd used _vox_ _non recognoscere_ to disguise his voice, which was an ingenious spell that prevented people from recognizing the original aspects of the caster's voice without affecting its inflection and tone. Even if she'd heard him speak before, she'd never know him by his voice.

She turned around. Her dark eyes glittered with excitement and a touch of fear.

"I wanted to meet you, but I'm here with someone else... they asked me just before I received your message. I'm sorry."

He didn't even vaguely recognize her voice, and wondered whether she was using the same spell he was. She was turning to walk away.

'_My dove is flying so soon? ...no good, no good at all.' _An idea came to him.

"Wait." He grasped one of her pale wrists. "Let me give you a kiss to remember me by- just in case it doesn't work out with this person." He could see tension rising in her shoulders as she thought it through.

'_A kiss is all he wants. It couldn't possibly hurt...'_

She faced him, his pale eyes burning with cold light through the eyeholes in his black mask holding her frozen.

"Alright." she announced, businesslike, "One kiss, and then I have to go."

He grinned, his perfect white teeth contrasting with the rest of his darkness.

"It's a deal.

Placing one hand on her lower back he pulled her toward him until they were pressed up against each other. With his other hand he cradled her face, his thumb gently caressing her cheek. His warmth after the cold night air shocked her, making her gasp; all at once his lips were upon hers. He began slowly, sucking gently on her lower lip and running his tongue along it. He bit her lip, just a little harder than was comfortable, sending a strong current of desire from her lips to her toes. As she moved into him to deepen the kiss, he withdrew to lay a path of light kisses along her jaw, his kisses becoming less and less chaste on the way back to her lips. He traced her lips lazily with his tongue, withdrawing whenever she tried to engage him. His kiss was already making her weak in the knees; this boy knew what he was doing- but then he did something that made her shamelessly grasp the front of his robes, overcome with want. He grasped her face more tightly, the pressure of his thumb becoming painful as he kissed her roughly, finally invading her mouth with his tongue. The combination of his warmth versus the cold of the night and the previous tenderness of the kiss versus its present fury was driving her insane.

He broke the kiss.

There he stood, his cool eyes blazing from the mask, his demeanour controlled, his hair swaying gently like white flames in the half-light. He really did seem a god.

He examined the effect the kiss had wrought upon his goddess: the abrupt end of the kiss had surprised her; she was gasping for air and standing unsteadily. She wobbled slightly in his arms, releasing the front of his robes. She shook her head gently, as if trying to shake the kiss from her memory, and then backed up a step and stood straight.

"Thank-you, Loki. I won't forget you." was all she could think to say. She paused, and then turned and walked from the garden and out of sight.

As soon as she was gone, he collapsed onto the wall behind him, leaning on it for support.

"Thank _you_ Athene... I won't be forgetting you soon either..."

O0O0O0O

Ginny found Hermione somewhat later sitting at a table by herself.

"So Hermione, what was he like?"

Hermione gazed helplessly at Ginny, her mouth opening and then closing, having found no words to accurately describe her encounter.

"... Hermione, what did you do?"

Her friend answered hoarsely: "I let him kiss me..." She sighed.

Ginny sighed in return. "Wow, you've got it bad." She smiled. "Don't worry, the dance is almost over, and we can change out of our costumes into street clothes and head down to Hogsmeade. You won't have worry about bumping into him then."

"The dance must be almost over." commented Hermione blandly, her mind still far away.

"Well, it's over at midnight when the announce the winners of the costume contest."

"Oh..."

The two sat in silence as the noise and revelry continued around them.

A light appeared at the front of the room, and Dumbledore, dressed in a muggle three-piece suit, walked onto the small stage that had been set up. The students cheered wildly, Ginny included. Hermione continued to stare about, half-hoping to see Loki, half-hoping not to. A few other teachers filed onto the stage; Professor McGonagall, dressed in black and orange robes and Professor Sevenstone, in a slinky black dress and pale skin, presumably a vampire. Dumbledore, his voice magically amplified, spoke:

"It is midnight, and am I here to announce the winners of the costume contest. Would those students dressed as the Greek goddess Athene and Norse god Loki please come up to the stage?"

Terror struck Hermione. She couldn't go onstage! But everyone around her was pulling her, pushing her; a thousand hands conspiring to move her to the front of the room. There way no way to fight the mass of laughing, screaming students and soon she was at the front of the hall being led up on to the stage by Professor McGonagall. Loki stood on stage next to her, having been led up by Professor Sevenstone. He did not look anywhere near as composed as he had earlier.

"Students," Dumbledore continued, smiling, "please remove your masks."

Hermione's eyes met Loki's, their expressions of fear matching perfectly.

"I- I'm not sure I want to remove my mask..." stuttered Loki, haltingly.

'_That voice... it sounds familiar... he must have also had _vox non recognoscere _cast on himself earlier.'_

"I don't think I want to either..." she agreed quietly.

"Now enough of this nonsense!" announced Professor McGonagall. "_Accio_ masks!"

Both Hermione and Loki grasped for their masks and then curled like they had been struck, turning away from each other. The teachers on stage exchanged puzzled looks. The students below just laughed, assuming they didn't want to be put on the spot in front of the student body. The only student in the crowd who knew otherwise was Ginny, who looked on in trepidation.

"There!" said Professor McGonagall, satisfied. "Now that wasn't so bad wasn't it?"

Hermione, anxiety vibrating through her entire body, turned slowly to face the student on her left.

'_It can't be that bad... Whoever it is, it can't be _that _bad...'_

He faced away, his hair now hanging flat presumably because the mask had inbuilt charms that had held it up. He was hunched over and trembling slightly, whether from fear or anger she knew not. He swung about suddenly to meet her eyes, his expression immediately changing into one of utmost horror.

Loki was Draco Malfoy.

O0O0O0O

OMG!! THEY KNOW!! lol

The shit's gonna hit the fan NOW my friends :)

Stay tuned for a sexy encounter next chapter...

Just for fun, to let you know, I was listening to the band 'Arcade Fire' while writing this chapter. The song that inspired the first scene of the dance is 'Rebellion (Lies)' although that's not the song I imagine is playing :) I don't know what's playing... but I can be 'Rebellion (Lies)' if you like, lol.

The song I was listening to while writing the Athene and Loki meeting scene is 'Black Mirror' also by Arcade Fire. I think the scene is even more awesome with that song in the background... so if you want to 'enhance your reading experience' and you can get your hands on it, lol, it sets the mood quite nicely. Actually, if you want the songs I'll e-mail them to your... Just send me an e-mail and I'll mail you back!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!

Leave me a review and let me know what you think:3

Lurves,

Planeswalker


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 5: In which a confrontation occurs.

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: JUST realized I had uploaded the uncorrected version of Ch. 1 (the version with typos... and no dividers... and Ron saying "spell" because I couldn't remember the spell _evanesco_, LOL). Fixed now, sorry:)

O0O0O0O

Hermione hardly remembered returning to the Gryffindor dorms to change out of her costume. She imagined she must have fled the stage, running for the door. Ginny told her later she had calmly accepted her prize and numbly acknowledged the congratulations of her classmates before quietly slipping from the hall. Draco had been seen doing the same. Only now, sitting on her large four-poster bed, was sense beginning to return to her.

'_Draco Malfoy!' _she thought to herself in disbelief, how could she have kissed Draco Malfoy? Worse still, how could she have _liked_ kissing Draco Malfoy?!

"Augh!" she cried out, roughly jamming her hair into a messy bun. She headed down the stairs to find Ron, Harry and Ginny already waiting for her. Ron and Harry had changed into street clothes, but had deemed to keep their shining nose and Father Christmas beard respectively. Ginny did not look incredibly pleased. Suddenly Hermione realized,

"Ginny, how are you coming with us? It's only seventh-year students allowed down to Hogsmeade."

Harry withdrew the Marauder's Map and grinned.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say Father Christmas. Let's go."

O0O0O0O

The night had deteriorated rapidly. Harry and Ron, who had set out to get drunk, succeeded, leading the occupants of the bar in a chorus of various Christmas carols. Ginny took this like a stoic, and to her credit did not leave Harry's side. After a few drinks, she was singing Christmas carols like the rest. Hermione, who had not set out to get drunk, failed, and was soon feeling warm and fuzzy and much better about having kissed Draco Malfoy. She turned to Ginny.

"So what, right? He's just a total creep and a nasty awful person and rubbish at school and rubbish at life. It could have been worse," she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "he could be _ugly_." Ginny giggled uncontrollably, falling off her stool and grabbing Harry's beard for support, causing him to cry out and then fall in a heap with her.

She turned then to Ron, placing a hand on his thigh. Ron's nose turned red.

"Hi 'Mione."

She smiled, "Hi Ron."

'_This is just what a need... another boy. It's not that I want Draco... it's that I want anyone, and Draco was there.'_

"So," she said, embolded by the alcohol in her system, "are you having a good night?"

Ron gulped. "Better now." he managed to say, his cheeks growing as red as his nose.

There was a thick silence between them, in which they both said many things with their eyes they never would have said aloud.

Harry popped up from the floor.

"I've got one Ron!" And to the tune of 'Carol of the Bells' he began to sing the words "Wobble-y pop, wobble-y pop, wobble-y pop, wobble-y pop."

Ron, suddenly forgetting all about Hermione, joined in.

Ginny joined Hermione at the bar again. "Wobbly pop?" She sighed.

Hermione, suddenly feeling very angry at being ignored and very warm decided she was going to take a short walk outside the bar, and told Ginny so.

She grabbed her wool coat from the back of the bar stool and weaving through the crowd of seventh year students, she burst out the door into the cold night air. She stopped for a moment, just enjoying the night, and then started walking. Spotting an alleyway, lit only by a lamp at the very end of it she started down it with the aim of finding somewhere to sit where no one would bother her. She turned into the alley, humming 'Carol of the Bells' to herself and running a hand along the brick of the wall.

About halfway down the alley, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. Terror seized her. Who or what was it? Had someone followed her? She swung about. There, at the mouth of the alley was Draco Malfoy. He wore a black woolen coat in the muggle style and dark green scarf. His hair was dishevelled, and some of it fell into his eyes.

He slowly and deliberately drew his wand. Hermione fumbled for hers in the pocket of her coat and had finally managed to draw it. She opened her mouth to cast a spell,

"_Expeliarmus_!"

Her wand flew from her hand and skittered a short ways down the alleyway. Hermione stood dumbfounded. How had he managed to best her? She backed away slowly, looking about wildly for an exit, but her back soon met the brick wall of the alley. Draco chuckled.

"Funny I should beat you with one out of Potter's book." he slurred.

'_God, he's really drunk...'_

Draco wasted no time roughly pinning her to the brick wall with extended arms. He leaned towards her, swaying a little.

"So Granger," he purred into her ear, "still going to have sex with me?"

"Augh!" she cried, pushing against him to get away. She had scarcely moved him forward a dozen centimetres when he pushed her back into the wall, hard.

"Ow! You bastard! Let me go!"

Draco chuckled darkly, his warm breath on her neck. "But you _like_ this Granger, you profile says you do... or should I call you Athene?" He bit gently at her ear, sending a spark of desire racing through her veins to linger between her legs. He spoke again: "You're a masochistic little whore and I'm a sadistic bastard..." his voice lowered to a warm whisper, "... we're practically _made_ for each other."

Desire and fear accosted Hermione alternately, each heightening the other in turn. It was true, earlier when he kissed her she hadn't wanted it to stop... she had found herself thinking things she'd never thought before. She just couldn't reconcile the image of the masked boy and his perfect, passionate kiss and the drunken git in front of her! How could they both be Draco Malfoy!?

In one terrible moment, both worlds collided.

He kissed her.

She tried to squirm away, but he just pressed his body up against hers, pinning her more firmly to the wall. Suddenly, something even stranger happened: she began to kiss him back. All at once, with her eyes closed in the darkness of the alley, it was as though they were back in the garden; two gods kissing in twilight. One of his hands returned to caress the side of her face as before; she supposed it was a habit of his. She could feel his arousal growing as he ground his hips into hers, but she didn't care, she just wanted contact. His other hand headed for the much less chaste location of under her skirt, teasing her through her panties. He pulled away a second, and Hermione leaned against the wall breathing hard, her head tilted back, her thoughts racing wildly.

The sound of a zipper snapped her back to reality.

She was _not_ in the garden at Hogwards with a mysterious masked boy.

She was snogging Draco Malfoy in a dark alley, and he was drunkenly fumbling with his zipper.

"Whoa! Hang on, what's going on here!" she managed to mutter, regaining her bearings.

He stumbled into her, knocking her into the wall again. Grabbing a handful of her curly hair with one hand he tilted her head to the side a little roughly, nipping at her neck and sucking hard enough to leave a mark. Unwanted feelings of desire surfaced in Hermione again. He whispered throatily into her ear:

"I mean to have you right here in the alleyway."

This comment sobered Hermione like nothing else had. She made a grab for his wand, which was protruding from his coat pocket. The moment her fingers closed around it she drew the wand from his pocket and pointed it at his chest. His eyes opened wide.

"_Expeliarmus!_" she cried, sending Draco flying with enough force to hit the opposite wall of the alley and crumple with a groan to the ground.

Hermione turned and ran back to the bar, bursting in the doors.

'_All I want is a man. I don't want Draco. All I want is a man.'_

Her eyes met Ron's. She walked quickly over to him and grabbed his hand.

"Let's go."

Ron looked puzzled. "Where?"

"Upstairs to the rooms."

Ron blushed furiously and mouthed silent words and she dragged him by the hand through the bar. As she arrived at the foot of the stairs, Draco entered the bar, looking more dishevelled than before. He saw the direction in which she was going, and he saw her holding Ron's hand. He sneered. She sniffed haughtily and continued on her way.

'_Good.' _she thought darkly, _'I'm _glad_ he saw.' _But all the while a miserable feeling was creeping into her stomach. _'Why do I feel this way?'_ she wondered. She dragged Ron down the hall, locating an empty room and pulling him in. She closed and locked the door and pushed him down onto the bed.

"Alright Ron. Let's go."

O0O0O0O

Sorry guys! This is a really short chapter I know, but I'm doing National Novel writing month this month so I don't have as much time for fanfiction! I'll try to keep updating in small bits like this when I can. I'm really having fun with this fic!

For the love of God leave me reviews, lol. There are a ton of people who've added this story to their favourites or alerts without reviewing. Let me know why you like it!! I want to know what I'm doing right!

Hopefully I'll have the next part out reasonably soon :)

PS. I fixed some typos in this chapter too...

Lurve,

Planeswalker


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 6: In which two move forward, and one steps sideways into the unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: NaNo's over! I'm back!!

O0O0O0O

Hermione sat down next to Ron on the bed and kissed him. His nose shone bright red. She pulled of his jumper and began unbuttoning her blouse.

Ron was somewhere between cloud nine and heaven.

'_God it's like my dream...' _he thought, watching her hurriedly peel her clothing off in front of him. _'Black bra... mm...'_

She straddled him and pushed him over onto the bed, wearing only her skirt and bra, and then continued to kiss him. Ron hesitantly placed a hand at the curve of her waist.

'_Her skin is so smooth...'_

She could feel Ron growing hard beneath her, and ground into him. He moaned, his nose flickering faintly red again. She grabbed her wand off the bedside table and dismissed the charm.

"There." she said. "Better." Now sitting up straight she ground her hips into him once more. Ron moved his hands down to her hips and encouraged the motion. The friction was driving him insane- wanted her _now_.

He rolled her over on the bed and took a moment to stand and unbutton and remove his jeans, also yanking off his boxers.

'_Impressive.'_ thought Hermione dimly about his arousal, the alcohol continuing the fog her mind. _'I hope it doesn't hurt too much...' _She oriented herself properly on the bed, having been perpendicular to it to this point.

Ron climbed onto the bed, hiked up her skirt and pulled her panties down around her ankles. He moved atop her, kissing her with fervour.

"I'm going to- to do it, ok?" he whispered in her ear.

"Ok." she whispered back, waiting.

Waiting.

'_Just do it. Do it!'_ she thought anxiously. She could feel him against her, preparing to enter.

Waiting.

"I'm sorry Hermione." he said quietly. "I can't." He rolled off her to the side, walking around the bed to collect his boxers and put them back on.

She sat up in bed. "What?!" she asked, confused and irritated. "I thought you wanted me!"

Ron looked up and down her naked form, sighing in frustration, his eyes wide with desire.

"I do. I really, _really_ do. Believe me." He reached for his jeans, stumbling as he tried to put a leg into one of the pantholes. "I just- this goes against everything... for me. You know? I like you Hermione. I don't the first time we have sex to be random and meaningless."

She looked up at him, sighed, and then began gathering her clothes from the floor and putting it back on.

"Yeah." she said quietly, "What was I thinking?"

Again fully dressed, Ron sat next to Hermione on the edge of the bed.

"What do you say-" he asked, somewhat hesitantly, "that we go out like a proper couple? And come to this slowly? If you want- I mean." he finished hurriedly.

Hermione smiled at him. "Ok Ron." She seemed suddenly exhausted. "Let's go back to Hogwarts."

O0O0O0O

A few weeks had passed since Halloween. Draco sat eating breakfast in the Great Hall. Again, his thoughts drifted back to Hermione Granger on the night of the Halloween dance.

He had only meant to scare her (or had he truly intended more?), but he couldn't forget the feeling. It was with him when he woke, in class and certainly, inevitably, it wound its way into his dreams, leaving him hard and unsatisfied every morning since, anointed in the cold sweat produced by his visions.

She had been terrified, but still defiant; he had expected nothing less.

No, it was not that. It was the fact that she had trembled against him but struggled insufficiently to escape his grasp.

She had wanted it.

Draco groaned, his mouth full of toast, his eyes squeezed shut.

"The toast isn't _that _good Draco..." said Pansy, rolling her eyes. Crabbe guffawed.

"Shut up, you great oaf." he directed to Crabbe. He sent a glare Pansy's way and stood, taking his last piece of toast with him. "Bitch..." he muttered under his breath as he walked away, not caring if she heard him or not.

Not looking where he was going he walked straight into Snape. Draco looked up, realizing whom he'd run into and began apologizing frantically. The last thing he needed was Snape angry at him.

"Professor! I'm so sorry! I-"

Snape interrupted him, his voice rather more languid than usual. "Forget it Draco." With a _smile_ he continued down the hall.

Draco stood in shock.

'_He smiled? He actually just smiled?! What they hell could have made him so happy...' _

And it hadn't be a nasty, sarcastic, thinking-about-ways-to-maim-you smile. It had been a contented, relaxed, happy smile. Malfoy looked closer._ 'His hair is clean?! Something big is going on...'_ A thought struck Draco. _'Is it possible he could have...? Do I even want to...?'_ Again, curiosity won. Draco pulled his SMF from his pocket at scanned Snape.

_- Ability: Great_

_- Potential: Excellent_

_- He/She can improve by: being more confident, practising _

_- He/She prefers his/her partners to be: female; curvaceous, aggressive _

_- His/Her tendencies are to be: hesitant, but slowly becoming more dominant and aggressive_

_- Specific target at the moment is: Lady Catseye (repeat partner) _

_- Total partners:_ _3_ _[Further breakdown provided upon request_

_- Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: high skill level, enjoys being both dominant and submissive, is encouraging_

_Current compatibility with Loki: 4_

'_Merlin's balls... Snape lost his virginity...WHAT?! Our compatibility went UP a percent?! What the hell?!'_

Draco's mind raced through the implications.

'_But then, with who? ... with a STUDENT?!' _Draco shuddered, imagining some twisted little female student going down to Snape's office for 'extra help'. _'...ugh.'_

At once Draco felt it was his duty to inform some member of authority, but realized the way he had obtained his information wasn't exactly 'legal' either. It was certainly his fault for inserting him into the SMF database... Heading off to class he stewed over it. He reached into his robes for his wand to shut off the SMF and realized again that the wand wasn't his. Their wands had been switched in the scuffle.

'_Great.'_ he thought, his mood darkening further. _'I forgot that I still have the stupid mudblood's wand...'_

Draco was mildly surprised she hadn't contacted him to switch them back, and he certainly wasn't going to make contact with her. He'd sooner use her wand until he died than ask her to meet him somewhere. He did have to admit to himself his barely mediocre magic was worsening without his own wand... but he wouldn't- _couldn't_ be the first to surrender his ferocious pride. He had to try twice to shut the SMF off. Jamming the wand back into his robes and grumbling, he headed of to class.

O0O0O0O

Ron and Hermione had been dating for nearly two months, and surprisingly to some but not others, their relationship on its most basic level hadn't changed greatly. They did couply things like holding hands, and certainly often snuck away together to make out at which times they became like completely different people. Hermione desperately wanted Ron to go farther, to be less considerate of her, and Ron continued being sweet and gentle.

All in all they were having a difficult time synthesizing their lives thus far as friends and their current state as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Toward the end of November, in Ron's dorm room while everyone was off at Hogsmeade, things heated up between them for the first time. Ron was nervous, but his shyness had been quickly eroded by his immense attraction to her Hermione and her ceaseless and unsubtle hints. They spent the afternoon in various states of undress, kissing, touching and just being close to each other. Ron, as always, was gentle, sweet and considerate, which was admirable on its own, but entirely the opposite of what Hermione wanted. She felt doubts immediately, but was certain everything would improve with time.

The truth was, Hermione was rushing the physical side of their relationship because she found herself thinking about Draco far too much, but attributed it to the fact she still had his wand. Her marks had begun to drop. Her teachers believed it caused by the onset of young love and thought nothing more of it. Hermione knew otherwise, but couldn't bring herself to contact Draco. This was NEWT year; every mark mattered, and after Christmas they would have a series of partial exams.

She needed her wand back.

For over a month of Hermione dropped obvious hints about how she enjoyed aggressiveness. Ron obliged her every now and then, but midway through a session would revert to his usual gentleness. Things continued this way until one lazy afternoon during Christmas break after making out in the deserted Gryffindor common room. As they lay together in front of the fire, Ron's arm around Hermione's waist, anxiety overcame pride. This relationship wasn't what she wanted. She feared Ron was frightfully close to saying things like 'I love you' and didn't feel she could answer honestly in return. She loved him as a dear friend, of course, and enjoyed the time she spent with him, but desperately wanted to up the physical element of their relationship; a thing that Ron seemed unwilling to do. Hermione sighed nervously. Ron took it for a sigh of satisfaction, and pulled her closed, wrapping the blanket more tightly around them.

O0O0O0O

Later that night, Hermione found herself wandering the halls out of bed. She'd felt the need to be alone, and the common room had been full of students celebrating the end of the holidays. She found herself wandering randomly, practising and failing more often than succeeding at various voiceless spells she was expected to know for the upcoming tests.

She shoved the wand back in her pocket, and turned back for the Gryffindor dorms. There, standing in front of her was Dumbledore.

"Oh!" she cried. "I'm sorry Headmaster, I know I shouldn't be out of bed. I'm going right now."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "We all need to wander the halls sometimes." he said. "And it is the last few days of holiday, so we may as well enjoy them." He paused a moment. "I noticed you are having some difficulties with your spells."

"Erm, yes." she said, giving the same excuse she'd been giving herself, "I've just been distracted lately, that's all..."

Dumbledore smiled. "I believe the trouble you're having is being caused by your wand; rather, I believe your wand may have been switched by accident."

She looked down at the wand and started, pretending to 'notice for the first time' it wasn't hers. "I- I can't believe I didn't notice." she stuttered lamely. "I'm so stupid..."

Seeming convinced or feigning it impressively Dumbledore smiled sagely and shook his head. "Even very bright people make mistakes." he said, "Why, in my youth I spent two weeks trying to cast spells with a rather formidably carved pencil before I realized the reason for my failures."

Hermione looked deeper into Dumbledore's bright eyes, trying desperately to divine whether or not he was joking. He spoke on. "I trust you know who it belongs to?"

"I do." said Hermione, her expression darkening.

"How wonderful." said Dumbledore, removing his hand from her shoulder, and beginning to walk in the opposite direction. "You can return it right after break then."

"Of course." she said, dread weighing her down.

Dumbledore stopped a moment, and turned to face her. "You're really rather fortunate. It took me three weeks to determine who had swapped my wand for the pencil and one further to locate him."

As he turned to continue down the hall, she saw the light of a merry glint in his eye.

"Enjoy the rest of your holiday, Ms. Granger." he said, and was gone.

Hermione returned to the Gryffindor dorms and went up to her room to sleep with the certainty of knowledge that she had to contact Draco as soon as the break was over.

Dumbledore was right, she admitted to herself. He was always right.

O0O0O0O

The day classes began after the Christmas holidays, as Draco prepared to go to class, when he picked up his SMF to throw it into a pocket in his robes, he felt it was unusually warm.

'_Mm...' _he thought happily, _'It seems I have a bite...'_

He'd been messaging several girls over the holidays, hoping one of them show sufficient interest to wish to meet him. The screen read: _You have a message from _Athene

His pale eyes narrowed. _'Granger. What they hell could she-?' _He's had Hermione's wand for so long he'd nearly forgotten. His lips twisted into a grin as he read the message: _I need my wand back. _

He chuckled to himself as he grabbed his books and walked out the door of his room.

'_I win...'_

O0O0O0O

Hermione waiting in vain for a reply all morning, but none came.

'_Maybe he doesn't have his SMF anymore.' _she thought, worried, _'Maybe I'll have to go find him...' _The thought turned her stomach. And what if Ron saw her talking to him? He'd lose it. _'If only he'd tap more of that temper in the bedroom.'_ she thought to herself, bemused.

As she sat down to lunch, she felt the SMF grow warm in her pocket.

The reply read: _Fine, but I don't want to be seen with you. Where do we meet?_

Hermione flushed in anger. It wasn't as though she wanted to be seen with him _either. _It wasn't as though she even wanted to go near him if she didn't have to.

She composed a quick response: _Do you know the Room of Requirement?_

O0O0O0O

Two days later in the afternoon, the day of her test, she headed toward the Room of Requirement between classes. Draco had demanded that she be there a full half hour before him so no one would associate their presence. When she entered the room it was bright, with a marble floor and many wooden chairs and little end tables with books and magazines. In the centre of the room were a few larger tables with chairs. On the walls were many clocks, perhaps a few hundred, all set to different times. One of them, labelled 'Hogwarts' was red. Minus the ridiculous amount of clocks, it reminded her of a cross between a train station waiting room she'd once been in and a library study room. She had a seat at one of the tables and pulled out some homework to do while she waited.

Half an hour later (to the minute, according to the red clock) Draco entered the room. He could hardly keep the smirk off his face.

Irate at his smarminess, Hermione stood, withdrawing his wand from her pocket as she walked around the table to thrust it toward him.

"Here." she said aggressively. He took it and handed her her own. She began jamming her books back into her bag as quickly as she could, all the while able to feel his eyes upon her. Why was he still here? The clocks ticked on through the silence but offered no reply.

"So-" he began, the same superior tone to his voice as always. "are you _enjoying _your mediocre compatibility with the Weasley?"

She stopped what she was doing and walked to face him, his cocky grin faltering momentarily as she looked him straight in the eye. After a moment, she replied.

"As a matter of fact," she said, "I am."

The lie was bold and clear in her eyes, and he saw it.

He saw every aching inch of her true desire.

He grabbed her by the wrist and then by the back of her neck, pulling her into a crushing kiss. She cried out at first, but submitted without resistance. After weeks of Ron's gentle sweetness this was exactly what she wanted; rough, unfiltered passion without sentiment. She was surprised as she felt the table behind her. The kiss stopped a moment. Draco released her wrist and slammed his hand down onto the table beside her, making her jump. He chuckled, his grey eyes gleaming with mischief and ill intent as he bit her lip and kissed her again. She grasped the front of his robes, just wanting to feel him closer; deeper.

She came to her senses and pushed him away, her mouth working but no sound coming out.

Tick, tock.

He waited.

"I- I don't want this." she said.

As if in response Draco lifted her up onto the table into one motion. He looked at her solemnly, his expression woven with anger, desire and confusion.

"Neither do I." he said.

She hesitated a moment, in the awkward unsilence filled by sound of the clocks, and then grabbed him by the front of the robes, pulling him to stand between her legs and initiating the kiss anew, which grew more frenzied and violent.

In the midst of it all, her rational mind surfaced.

'_The test. Class is starting any time now.'_

She stopped the kiss again. He looked expectant and impatient.

"I have a test. Right now." She turned to grab her bookbag, feeling him standing behind her. She turned to face him again. He seemed to be trying his best to keep his expression neutral, but looked a little irritated. She slipped under his arms, braced on the table.

"I'm... going now." she turned to leave, feeling strange about the whole situation and incredibly anxious about her test, hoping having her wand back would be enough. She was certain she had the technique of it down right, it was just that when she went to cast the spell there was no result or it was poor and-

"Wait."

It was Draco's voice. She had already forgotten his presence, so caught up in thoughts about school. She turned to face him, his expression strained. Obviously it had cost him to call out to her.

"Yes?"

"Meet me again." he said in a rush. "Tomorrow at the same time."

She bit her lip, still thinking, and left the room without answering.

Tick, tock.

Draco stumbled back at sat on the table, reaching a hand into his robes and down his pants to stroke himself.

'_The bitch.' _he thought to himself, grasping harder, _'Useless, stuck-up slut of a mudblood.' _

He gasped, realizing he needed to slow before he came right there in the empty room into his pants. He withdrew his hand, tilting his head back, closing his eyes and trying to calm himself. It was no use; he could still feel her small body again him, her hands clutching at the front of his robes, her moans against his lips. His arousal throbbed in his pants. He sat still, his breathing uneven, trying to forget her. Minute after minute, tick piled upon tock until a quarter of an hour passed thus in failure to clear his mind. He decided to skip his next class, and return to the dorms for a cold shower. He couldn't help glance back at the room as he left.

Would she come to meet him?

Tick.

Tock.

Time would tell.

O0O0O0O

A/N: The first thing I have to say: Oh, to be the 'twisted little female student going down to Snape's office' XD ... I could use some 'extra help' from him any day ;) Lol

Sorry about the delay, updates should be a little more frequent... but not much, as all the work I should have done last month while writing the novel... I have to do this month. Doh.

PLEASE review :D I love to hear your thoughts and ideas!!

Until soon,

Planeswalker


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 7: In which the author realizes she screwed up... (See author's notes...) I mean-

In which the seeds of future pleasure are planted by some, and a bitter harvest is reaped by others

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: OK guys... I am a HUGE fool. Today I came across some notes I made about this fic before I went on my little hiatus... and I've just realized I got ahead of myself... quite ahead of myself... so ahead of myself I'm going to have to rewrite the last chapter so the story works out in the end O.O

I'm super sorry! I'm going to include a chunk at the beginning of this chapter basically detailing what's going on, which will stand until I've fixed the last chapter. Some of the parts from the last chapter are going to be transplanted forward in the fic... wauugh!! I suck!!! ... on with the show ...

O0O0O0O

As opposed to explaining this in proper prose, I'll just be straight:

Ron and Hermione have NOT had sex, because Ron wants it to be 'special'. Hermione just wants it. She frustrated, and wishes he'd at LEAST be more aggressive. That's the only, but MAJOR, difference between what I wrote and what I should have written... The last chapter has been fixed to reflect this information, but for those of you who just want to move on in the story, feel free to do so :)

We left off with Hermione leaving an unsatisfied Malfoy in the waiting room as she headed for her test...

O0O0O0O

Hermione passed the test with flying colours. She heaved a sigh of relief and felt like hugging her wand in front of the class. Some of the students in the class sunk into despair, their 'If Hermione can't do properly it than NO ONE can' defence solidly shattered.

After the joy of passing the test, the reality of her situation regarding Ron and Draco began to drag her down. She watched the other students move to the front of the class, attempting to transfigure a rabbit into a music box without uttering a word. Some succeeded, some did not. She noticed no one had done it as handily as Hermione, whose music box had contained three dancing ballerinas and sang the listener's favourite song. This pleased her, but couldn't wholly distract her from the problem at hand. She was dating Ron, but felt a strong physical attraction to Draco, whom she hated. There was something about the way he held her, kissed her, touched her that kept him in her mind; he did it all as though he owned her, and that, more than anything, excited her. A shiver ran the length of her spine, and she immediately felt embarrassed for thinking such things during class, accompanied by the paranoid hope no one could read her mind. While she didn't think anyone in the class had the skill, she resolved to learn a little more about occlumency.

As everyone in class laughed at one student's music box, which was covered in fur, only managed to shakily sing the first few notes of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' before hopping off the desk. Hermione felt her mind slipping deeper into thought.

Should she even go to meet Draco tomorrow? She knew that if he initiated action she wouldn't want to stop him, but she felt terrible about the idea of hooking up with Draco when she was officially dating Ron.

She realized she was thinking about breaking up with Ron; thinking about breaking up with Ron for _Draco Malfoy_.

Her elbows on the desk, she covered her face with her hands.

'_Ugh. What's _wrong_ with me?'_

She put her hands back down onto the desk, sighed, and looked up. The class was empty except for Professor McGonagall, who was looking concernedly at her.

"If you ever need someone to talk to..." said the professor hesitantly, "You know where my office is. You have so much potential Hermione, I hate to see it go to waste." She patted Hermione on the hand in a way that was strangely motherly, and left the classroom.

Hermione imagined explaining her problem to McGonagall of all people.

'_You see professor, my boyfriend wants to wait for some ridiculous 'special moment' to have sex with me, and there's another boy I happen to hate, but with whom I'd definitely have amazing sex so I don't know who to choose...'_

She snorted, chuckled wryly and gathered her books.

'_Thanks professor, but I think I'll have to figure this one out on my own...'_

O0O0O0O

That evening Snape sat happily sated in Deia's bed. The sun had long ago set, and the room was lit only by a few candles levitating here and there. He was relaxing and waiting for Deia to return from the washroom, his head leaning back against the headboard, when a glint of light caught his eye from the bedside table. Snape, curious by nature (a potions master could be no other way, as it was experimentation that lead to greatness), leaned over to see what it was. He moved aside the roll of parchment that partially hid the object.

Two objects; he took them in his pale hands.

His scientist's mind analysed the situation: two pieces of metal (gold- _aurum_ in latin; hence the periodic table symbol _Au_), seven bright stones (diamonds; _adamas_ in latin, an allotrope of carbon, symbol _C_).

His thoughts were cold, razor sharp, _'Rings. Wedding rings. No wonder I didn't remember a Deia Sevenstone from my classes... it's not her maiden name...'. _

Snape rose from the bed, his expression neutral and calm, his thin, pale form covered in gooseflesh. He retrieved his robes from the floor, dressed himself.

When Deia returned from the washroom, freshened up for round two, he was already gone.

"Severus." she called playfully. "Where are you, lover?"

Levitating above the bed were some of the candles that had been lighting the room, and between them were two objects; her wedding rings.

"Damnit." she swore, picking them from the air and wrapping herself in her dark silk robe. Snape had arrived early, and she hadn't had enough time to hide them properly. She sat down on the edge of the bed, holding the rings tightly in one fist, the settings of the diamonds stabbing into her palm. Her eyes burned, and she fought not to cry. These past months had been perfect. She knew she'd have to tell him about her husband eventually, but hadn't wanted to ruin things. Now Snape had discovered on his own and presumably jumped to the worst of conclusions.

"Damnit!" she cried, pitching the rings across the room. Grabbing her wand from the bedside table, she extinguished the floating candles, and threw them into the wastebin. Angry at herself for her carelessness, she crawled into bed. She tried to sleep, but the sheets smelled of Severus.

The tears began to fall.

O0O0O0O

Hermione sat in the Gryffindor common room, her homework before her, still not done. She'd spent the last hour agonizing over her decision. Instead of solutions, she'd found only more questions and maybes.

What if Draco only wanted her once? If that were the case, breaking up with Ron would be silly and pointless. She could sleep with Draco and, her curiosity satisfied, could continue her relationship with Ron (who was probably better for her) and with whom she would have sex eventually. Ron was he type of man she could see herself maybe someday making a life with. Draco on the other hand... she grinned to herself.

'_What am I _thinking?!_' _She tugged a hand through her curly hair for the hundredth time, slowly eroding the spell she had cast on it to cause it to fall into ringlets, slowly returning it to its fuzzy, bushy natural state. _'I can't cheat on Ron! Why would I ever even consider that?'_

'_Because Draco can give you something Ron won't...'_ answered another voice. _'...and according to the SMF he can do it better...'_

She scowled, slamming her books shut. Obviously she wasn't going to get any homework done tonight. She trudged up the stairs to her room and put her books away, preparing for bed.

'_Maybe if I just talk to Ron...' _she thought sleepily,_ 'see what's holding him back...'_

Climbing into bed and shutting off the light she resolved to at least speak to Draco the next day and find out exactly what he wanted. She would share her thoughts on the matter and they would reach a conclusion like civilized adults.

'_Yeah right.' _the second voice in her head sneered.

"Shut up." Hermione muttered to herself, and soon fell asleep.

O0O0O0O

Draco waited inside the Room of Requirement. He'd thought of making it into the lovely little bedroom to which he customarily brought his girlies, but had a strong desire to have Hermione on one of the large wooden tables of the waiting room... and so he had requested the waiting room again.

He sat in one of the chairs placed around the perimeter of the room, leafing through a conveniently placed magazine of a topic he found quite pleasing. He had just flipped the magazine sideways and greeted the lovely witch in the centerfold when Hermione entered the room, surprised to find him waiting for her. He was just as surprised she'd actually come to meet him. He put the magazine down and stood.

"No, sit please." she said, her tone businesslike. Draco didn't like the way things were beginning, but he humoured her and sat. She continued on before he could say a thing.

"I have a couple questions." she said.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well, ask away then."

Hermione, not at all put out by his tone, did so.

"Firstly, what do you want from me?"

Draco laughed. "Oh come on now. You know what I want. Right now I want you naked on that table screaming my name."

Hermione flushed a little. "I mean what level of commitment do you want? Will we meet only once, multiple times...?" She left the question to hang.

"I hadn't so much thought about it." said Draco, shrugging. I suppose I'll want you until I'm tired of you."

"So definitely more than once?"

Beginning to get frustrated by the questions, Draco answered. "Well, of course. We've got to get used to each other first if we want to enjoy our 94 percent to its fullest I suppose." He smiled demeaningly "I'll need some time to... break you in, I guess you could say."

Hermione's flicked about Draco's body; pale eyes, pointed chin, long legs (wide open).

"And if you're still a _virgin_-" he said the word with disdain.

The way he sat caused his robes to fall to his sides, allowing her to see the large bulge in the front of his pants.

"Well, it's just going to take even _longer_."

She hurriedly switching her gaze to his knees.

"It usually isn't any fun the first time." he went on.

'_... still too close ...'_ she thought,changing her focus to his feet and, noticing how large they were, realizing she hadn't stopped herself from thinking about the part of him she was trying to avoid thinking about it.

She looked back up at his eyes.

"So guess it depends how fast you learn." he said, now standing and walking toward her.

"I'm... a quick learner." she said, rather more breathlessly than she had intended. She could hardly stand the effect he had on her; he made her behave in a completely irrational way, losing all her good sense. He hadn't even touched her yet and she already felt as though the situation was escaping her control.

"Wait." she said.

He stood directly in front of her, looking down at her. She stared through his chest.

"I still need some time to think about this."

She turned and grasped the handle, walking out into the hallway.

Draco followed her, grabbing her by the wrist and turning her to face him.

"You're wearing on my patience. I want something in return for my time."

"No." said Hermione, frustrated. "I'm seeing Ron... and we haven't even... well... I can't see you on the side. That's the point. I need to speak to him."

"I could care less about your problems." Draco sneered, kissing Hermione full on the lips.

O0O0O0O

Harry was on his way to classes when he rounded a corner to see Hermione shoving Draco Malfoy.

"Hey, whoa!" he cried out, drawing his wand and running over to them, pushing himself between them, his wand at Draco's throat. "You leave her the _hell_ alone Malfoy. We're sick of you and your crap."

Draco scoffed. "Yeah, whatever Potter. I'm so scared." He walked off down the hall.

Harry turned to face his friend.

"You OK Hermione? What did he want?"

She realized Harry would be a great deal more furious if he'd seen Draco kissing her, and calmed somewhat.

"I bumped into him by accident." she lied. "He was just being a jerk like always."

"That bloody git." muttered Harry through clenched teeth. "Let's go to class now."

O0O0O0O

Ron, doing some homework in the Gryffindor common room, saw Hermione enter with a thermos of something and an odd look on her face. She sat next to Ron on the couch.

"What is it?" he asked, knowing right away this wasn't usual behaviour for her. Without speaking she duplicated the lid of the thermos and transfigured the lids into two mugs into which she poured the steaming contents of the thermos.

"Tea." she said with a slight smile that soon faded.

Ron took a sip of the tea. "This has a calming draught in it." he said, recognizing the taste.

"Erm, yes." said Hermione, sipping her own. "We need to talk... about something big. And I thought it might help..."

Ron knew he should be experiencing anxiety, but felt only the smallest twinge of it. Hermione's calming draught was almost as good as his mother's. They sat in silence a moment in the warm emptiness of the common room.

Hermione cleared her throat and spoke, "Ron," she said, looking at him sincerely, "why won't you... have sex with me?"

Despite the draught Ron still coloured slightly.

"Well," he said, "I had a really terrible first experience I just want to forget... I'd just rather wait until it really means something to me- until I find the person I want to be with for good."

Hermione nodded, making an noncommital sound. "But Ron," she said softly, "I don't want to wait."

"I _need_ to." he said, his eyes gleaming with hope and desperation. This clearly meant a lot to him. Hermione sighed.

"...but I don't. I- I want to get to know myself better before I settle down with any one person, and also... I just don't know how I feel about you yet. We've been friends for so long... I just don't know if what I'm feeling for you is friendship or something else."

"Yeah, I get it." he muttered. "It's, erm, it's alright. We'll still hang out, right?"

"Of course." she said smiling.

"Yeah, OK." said Ron, sounding somewhat less sad. He placed a hand on her knee. "And let me know when you figure out for sure how you feel about me."

"I promise." she said, giving Ron a long hug.

Part of her felt terrible for what she had done. The other part of her, the part that made snide comments and lusted after Draco, was only excited.

O0O0O0O

Draco lay in bed, about to fall asleep when a soft glow from his bedside table woke him. He rolled over to see through blurry eyes his SMF lit up to notify him he had a message.

_I have a free period before Potions the day after next. _It read. _Can you meet me?_

To the SMF and the darkness of the room Draco gleefully whispered:

"Yes."

O0O0O0O

A/N: I do believe I'm going to end this chapter here :)

Next chapter Draco and Hermione begin their ... 'little adventure' together and someone accidentally finds out about them :O

Also, Snape is back in all his sarcastic angsty glory, just the way we like him ;)

Also, also: A number of you guys have put me on your Favourites lists :D Thanks! I'm really flattered :) There are some of you I haven't heard from yet and would love to; psst leave me reviews! lol. I don't try to be subtle, haha.

Until next time!

Planeswalker


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 8: In which our unlikely couple's first official meeting occurs...

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: Here comes the tasty!! And some funny scenes too :)

O0O0O0O

In one of the Gryffindor girls' dorm rooms a soft light shone from under somebody's covers. Hunched in bed with her wand for light and her blankets over her so as not to disturb her roommates, Hermione was reading a book she'd bought at Madame L's called _Sexy Spells for Practical Witches: Volume 1_. It was more or less a beginner's guide to sex and sex aid spells. Hermione (of _course_) knew about all of these things in theory, but when it came to practice, had little to no experience.

'_I will be prepared.'_ she thought determinedly to herself, pulling out some parchment to make notes.

Less than ten minutes later the Hermione-sized shape under the blankets grew flatter and flatter under a soft snoring began to emanate from it. The light faded and went out.

Hermione had fallen asleep.

O0O0O0O

Just as Snape was about to go downstairs for coffee (he rarely ate breakfast), a paper bird flew into his room and startled him, by unfolding in front of his face. It read:

'_Severus, please let me explain.'_

With a flick of his wand the paper caught fire and fell to the stone floor in a little pile of ashes which Snape didn't even bother to disapparate.

'_Explain...'_ he thought darkly, stalking through the halls, _'She had plenty of time to explain, but didn't. I assume she's now fabricated some believable explanation... and I'll have none of it.'_

Snape was furious over the whole ordeal, but mostly, he was just disappointed in himself for daring to believe someone had wanted him. It was clear the most he had been was a plaything. To what end; he knew not. Every now and then, through his anger, a small voice in the back of his mind piped up: _'What if she really does want you?' _He silenced it quickly and brutally, sinking back into the mire of his pessimism, the dominant voice in his mind answering it:

'_Of course she doesn't want you. No one has _ever_ wanted you.'_

O0O0O0O

Later that afternoon Draco stood outside the door to the Room of Requirement. His heart beat strong and fast and his chest, and he hadn't been able to get his thoughts off of Hermione since she'd finally agreed to meet him.

"_Tempus praesentare_." he muttered, the current time glowing before him. Five more minutes. He was sure he'd go mad before then.

Just then, Hermione came walking briskly around the corner, a queer expression on her face. She was excited, but nervous, but _so_ excited, but (oh my _LORD_) was she nervous. As she reached Draco's side he glanced quickly up and down the hall to make sure no one was therebefore opening the door and dragging her in by the wrist.

Nearly-headless Nick floated from the wall he'd been in nearby and sighed,

"And I always thought she was such a _nice_ girl..."

The ghost gave a cry of alarm when the Bloody Baron floated out of the wall beside him.

_'Another victory for Slytherin.' _thought the Baron happily, and floated off down the hall to find someone else to intimidate.

O0O0O0O

Deia was melancholy. Hours had gone by without a response from Severus, which seemed to mean that none was forthcoming. She remembered anxiously how over the bed they'd shared he had levitated the rings; hung there like a silent accusation. She supposed that had been response enough. It wasn't, however, the response she wanted.

'_Fine.'_ she thought to herself. _'I'll just have to alter the situation in my advantage...'_

O0O0O0O

The room they'd entered was full of dark wood and deep green drapery and hangings chased in gold. Hermione was secretly pleased she had interfered in Draco's colour scheme, deposing his house's silver for her house's gold.

Draco, discarding his robes as he entered the room, couldn't care less about the colours, and wanted nothing less than to throw Hermione to the large four-poster bed in the centre of the room. With an easy movement and a grin he removed her robes and did so, enjoying the silent exclamation of surprise on Hermione's face. He climbing onto the bed and, pushing her hair from her face, kissed her.

He felt a hesitant tapping on his shoulder, and opened his eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"Well, erm, shouldn't we-"

"Shouldn't we _what_?" he asked in exasperation.

"Is this how this manner of meeting normally proceeds?" she asked. "No prelude? Straight to the bed?"

"What else could there possibly be to do?" he asked incredulously.

"Never mind then!" she responded in frustration.

"Good!" he answered, kissing her again. _'Analysing every bloody situation...'_ he thought in irritation. His kisses grew more aggressive.

All the while, her mind raced wildly.

'_I can't believe I'm doing this! Not to mention with Draco Malfoy- oh... wow, that tongue thing he just did was amazing- Whoa! Where is he putting that hand? Oh- no... that's good... Ah! I can't believe this!!'_

Her mind recycle thoughts on the same theme, while she sunk deeper and deeper into desire and farther from any reality that mattered.

Draco shifted himself atop her and between her legs. She could feel his hardness grinding against her and she hesitantly wrapped one of her legs around one of his. These small acts of acceptance drove Draco wild, only making him want to dominant her further. Her grabbed her by the wrists and pinned her arms above her head with one of his hands.

Hermione uttered a strangled cry and seemed to be about to speak out in opposition of the act, and so Draco covered her lips with his once again.

'_Heh...'_ he thought to himself, pleased, _'That's one way to shut her up...'_

The need between them grew wilder, their kisses more frenzied.

Draco broke for air, sitting up and hurriedly loosening his tie and removing it with his shirt. As he went to unbuckle his belt he heard Hermione's voice again.

"I... I thought I should tell you I don't want to have sex the first time..."

Draco groaned. Every time she opened her mouth is was just more bad news. _'I should have know... little mudblood prude...'_ He sighed, and then let the frustration pass.A crooked smile lit his thin face. _'She hasn't spoken up about any other restrictions though...'_

"Fine." he said, as he crawled slowly back over to her. "We'll just play other ways."

She bit her lip, wondering if he knew how well his words always affected her while enjoying the site of his naked upper body. He was fairly thin, but broad across the shoulders and fit. He placed himself beside her, kissing her while allowing his hands to wander over her body. Slowly one hand wandered downward, beneath her skirt, and unlike the time in the alley, not respecting the barrier of her underwear. She writhed and moaned against him. He broke their kiss and whispered into her ear: "Tell me you like it."

Hermione's half-lidded eyes sparked with panic.

"Wh- what?" she stuttered, her voice heavy with pleasure "Wh- _oh!_ Why?"

"Because I want you to." he answered simply, desire darkening his own voice.

"But-"

"But nothing." he said, biting at her earlobe. "If you don't... I'll stop."

Hermione moaned once more, this time in pleasure mixed with anxiety.

"On the count of three." he whispered, his breath warm. "One... two... th-"

"F- fine!" she said, her voice catching in her throat again, "I like it..."

"Mm." said Draco, biting his lip, "That is _exactly _what I like to hear... say it for me one more time..."

Mortified, Hermione repeated her words more loudly, "I like it, alright?"

Draco groaned, closing his eyes a moment. The intensity of the lust in them startled her when he opened them. "Then you'll love this..." he whispered. In one swift movement he was atop her again, settled between her knees.

"Hey!" she cried in surprise, backing up, her upper back, shoulders and head pressed uncomfortably into the wooden headboard. He reached for her tie. Thinking he was going to loosen or remove it she allowed him to, but instead, he tightened it uncomfortably making it slightly difficult for her to breathe. She began to panic.

"What are you-?"

"Relax." he said, rolling his eyes. _'Asking her to trust me would just be overdoing it...'_ he thought sardonically to himself.

A hand snaked beneath her skirt once more, and she felt one finger enter her and then and second, slowly beginning to move in and out of her.

Hermione continued to panic, feeling no other sensation other than a slight lack of air; nowhere near enough to choke her, but more than was comfortable. Then, Draco increased both the depth of his thrust and speed all at once.

"Ow!" she whispered, but Draco's mouth soon covered hers in another of his devouring kisses. His deep kisses created a startling counter point to the pain she was being caused and her awkward position against the headboard.

Suddenly, pleasure blossomed and nearly replaced the pain entirely. Draco felt her sigh into his mouth and smiled against her lips.

'_There we go...' _he thought to himself.

The pleasure continued to build within her, the lack of oxygen to the brain heightening the sensation. Desperately needing something to hold on to she grasped Draco's arm, feeling the muscles in his forearm expanding and contracting.

Her sighs soon turned to moans and then cries as she reached her climax. Draco slowed his hand, using his other to loosen her tie again.

He looked at her, one eyebrow cocked. "I told you." was all he said.

Hermione, still breathing heavily, attempted to formulate a reply that quickly degenerated into a string of nonsense.

"Honestly..." was all she managed to whisper.

Draco withdrew from her, rising from the bed to wash his hands in a nearby sink. The room really was quite convenient. Hermione eventually managed to rise, and, taking her wand with her, wobbled off to the washroom. She was surprised to find she was bleeding a little. She knew what had technically taken place, but nevertheless, it was a little startling. With a few spells the bleeding stopped and she was clean.

Draco washed the blood from his hand. _'Cherry...' _he thought cheerfully to himself. _'Took her cherry...'_

Hermione tucked her wand into the back of her skirt, walked back into the room and flopped onto the bed. Draco, carefully drying his hands, came to sit on the edge of the bed. All curled up and exhausted from pleasure, she looked almost too cute to bother.

'_Almost...'_

Draco nudged her in the side. Her eyes fluttered open to see him unzipping his pants and removing from them his hardened member.

"On your knees." he said with his characteristic sly smile, motioning to the ground in front of him, "It's my turn."

Hermione's mind snapped out of it's languid state and back into panic.

"Well," she said, sitting up, "it's just that I've never-"

"First time for everything, right?" interrupted Draco.

"Yeah..." said Hermione, coming obediently to kneel between his long legs. She couldn't take her eyes off of his hand, which he was using to casually stroke himself. She reached a hand around to find her wand and closed her eyes a moment, trying to remember what she'd read in the book in the chapter on oral sex, when Draco interrupted her.

"What are you doing? Trying to remember instructions from some stupid manual?" She coloured, wondering if she was really that predictable. Draco sneered. "I have some instructions for you: Open mouth, insert cock!" He placed one of his large hands on top of her head of curly hair and pushed downward.

Startled by, well, a mouth-full of Draco, she still managed to voicelessly cast one spell she remembered for reducing gag reflex. She was just starting to get the hang of what she was doing; she could tell by Draco's responses (the leaned-back head back, the half-closed eyes, the moans of increasing volume and frequency), when the warning bell rang for class. She stopped.

Draco looked down at her.

"No." he said. "Tell me you're kidding me."

"We can't be late for class." she said apologetically. "It's Potions; not too mention it would be just too terribly obvious if we showed up late together." As she stood, Draco pulled her into his lap, kissing her roughly, his hand lingering at the side of her face as it tended to do.

"Alright."

Hermione extricated herself from his grip, and the two of them went about fixing their appearance with various spells. They decided Hermione should leave first. She left the room, but a second later heard the door open and then close, and felt a strong grip on her wrist. She turned to see Draco behind her

"Later," he said, his voice rougher than usual, "I'm going to use your pretty mouth."

The words send a chill through Hermione, not altogether unpleasant.

Draco wondered a second how he had used the word 'pretty' to describe _any_ part of Hermione Granger, but had slowly begun admitting her attractiveness to himself, in the less conscious parts of his mind.

Hermione pulled her arm from Draco's grip and turned to see someone disappearing around the corner.

Someone had been there.

Someone had seen.

The questions remained: who had it been, and how long had they been watching?

O0O0O0O

A/N: Zomg!! doom music

WhoEVER could it be? lol. Any guesses?

I had a bunch of other stuff I was going to add to this chapter, but then realized that when I finished it up the whole thing would be WAY too long. So, this means you can look forward to another chapter really soon!!

Wheeee!

Tasty little dungeon scene coming up in the next chappy... muaha!

Also... one of our unlikely couple is confronted by the person who was watching...

:D

See youz folkses soon!

Thanks for all the reviews :)

Planeswalker


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 9: In which the identity of the listener is revealed and Draco keeps his promise

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: Are you all excited to find out who was a-spyin' on our kinky couple?

O0O0O0O

"There was someone there!" said Hermione nervously, swinging around to face Draco. A strange feeling spiked in her stomach at the look he was continuing to give her.

"So what?" he murmured, pulling her close again, obviously still entrenched in desire.

"Look." she said firmly, pulling her wrist out of his grasp. "What if it's someone I know; someone _you_ know?"

Panic snapped Draco out of his trance.

'_Merlin...'_ he thought anxiously to himself, _'What if is _was_ someone I know...' _he glanced at Hermione in disgust, _'What was I thinking?' _

"Yeah, alright." he said, his voice having grown cold once more. "You can be certain we won't be seen together again." he stood a little straighter, "Whatever would my father say if he knew I was dallying with a _mudblood_?"

Hermione, now enraged, took off down the hall to class.

'_Bastard!'_ she thought to herself, trying to keep tears from her eyes. _'I shouldn't have expected him to behave any differently I suppose...'_

Draco realized stupidly and belatedly that calling the girl he wanted sex from a mudblood, whether she was or not, was really not the best way to get into her pants. Swearing quietly to himself he headed off to Potions as well, there now being a safe distance between Hermione and himself.

Hermione arrived in class and in slipped into her regular seat next to Harry. She angrily began arranging her books and potions materials on the desk in from of her, not looking up when Draco entered the classroom. Having a arrived so late the only empty space left was one next to Hermione. She stubbornly continued organizing her things, refusing to look at him.

Snape entered the classroom a moment later, looking his sullen and greasy self. He unceremoniously dumped his books onto the desk.

"Today," he began, "we'll be discussing the basics of potion creation theory." With a flick of his wand, a few points began outlining themselves on the blackboard. He looked back at the class and continued. "Until this point you've been following potion instructions like the blind ignorant fools you are... I'm _hoping_ to foster in you at least a minimal understanding of the properties of the most common potion ingredients and how combining them in different amounts can highlight or change different properties."

As Snape droned on, outlining the day's exercise, Harry leaned closer to Hermione and asked in a low whisper: "So, has Draco been bothering you again?"

Hermione frowned, looking straight ahead. "No." she whispered in reply, "Why?"

"...Well, he's sitting right next to you." said Harry.

"There was no other space." Hermione replied quickly.

As Harry made a 'Hm'ing noise in response Snape whipped around and glared directly at him.

"_Some_ of you" he said, irritated, "will undoubtably be hopeless at this entire exercise."

Some of the Slytherins in the room chuckled at Snape's obvious insult of Harry. Snape smiled slightly at the response and went on. "This will be especially unfortunate for those of you who require this class as a prerequisite for your higher education."

The stare-down ended as Snape turned to the board to point at the first set of notes.

"Today you will mixing three different and basic potion ingredients in different quantities to discover for yourselves how their properties change. The first ingredient is gurdyroot..."

When Harry was certain Snape had turned his attention away, he spoke to Hermione again.

"Are you _sure_ he hasn't been bugging you?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm certain." said Hermione, colouring, her voice rising a little.

"Really?" asked Harry, his voice rising as well.

"Really!" said Hermione, louder than she had intended.

Snape stole a glance at the class as he lectured, his eyes narrowed. He'd heard someone, but he didn't know who. Everyone seemed to be studiously scribbling away onto their parchment.

'_It's most likely Potter... But I'll have to catch him in the act...' _He turned away, his hearing tuned for Harry's voice.

"He _threatened_ you in the hallway upstairs!" whispered Harry, looking desperately into Hermione's eyes. His expression darkened. "If he ever does anything to you, I'll- I'll..."

"That won't be necessary." she said.

"I heard him! Just before class! He told you he was going to 'use your pretty mou-"

"Enough!" she said.

Snape now turned full around.

"Detention." he hissed, pointing his wand first at Hermione and then at Harry. "For the both of you." Their names appeared written in the top right corner of the blackboard.

"Actually." said Draco, speaking up, "It was me. I was teasing Granger."

Snape looked suspiciously at the three of them.

"That is strangely honest of you, Draco." He flicked his wand at the board, Draco's name replacing Harry's.

"But-" began Harry, who was cut off by Snape.

"I can give you detention as well if you wish it, Potter." snarled Snape. "One more word, and you're on the list. Now, take out your ingredients, it's time to begin the exercise."

Harry, remembering his quidditch practice that evening, said nothing. He nervously watched Draco smile, pleased with himself, lighting his cauldron.

O0O0O0O

Draco and Hermione sat at desks in the dungeon later that evening staring at the ridiculous number of disgustingly dirty cauldrons from all of the failed mixes during their exercise earlier that day. Their job would be to clean them all; _sans_ magic. Hermione, who found kneeling on the stone floor gave a better angle at the inside of the cauldrons rather that the high desks, was doing so, scrubbing away determinedly. Draco sat at a desk doing nothing. Snape, had notified them he had a few things too take care of around the school, and locking their wands in his desk drawer, he told them he would be back in a half an hour or so, and left them alone with the cauldrons.

Hermione found herself feeling bizarrely uncomfortable around Draco and not sure how to behave. Draco, who was experiencing no such feelings, struck up a conversation.

"So," he began, "did you notice the change in Snape?"

"Come to think..." she replied while continuing to scrub, not wanting to meet Draco's eyes, "I did... He was strangely happy for a bit there wasn't he?" she chuckled to herself, "Actually, the first time Ron saw him smiling he ran to check on Harry, because he was certain the only way Snape would _ever_ be that happy was if he'd finally done Harry in."

Draco's expression grew sour as she mentioned Ron, but a smirk soon flickered onto his face.

"What if I told you I knew why?" he asked.

Hermione looked up from the cauldron. "Do you?" she asked curiously. She began cleaning again, rather more violently. "I mean, it's really none of my business... but... I do admit I did wonder at it..."

"What's the information worth to you?" he asked.

Hermione frowned, certain she could feel him staring into her. "I wasn't _that_ curious." she replied hastily. "Besides," she added haughtily. "I'm sure I could figure it out on my own."

Draco cocked an eyebrow and snorted; amused by the unlikelihood of Hermione actually guessing the true reason for Snape's weeks of joy. "I sincerely doubt it."

"Give me a week." she said, "It's all I need."

"Are you trying to strike some sort of a bargain, Granger?"

Hermione's eyes jumped from the cauldron to Draco's eyes, through which swirled brightly the myriad things he could ask her for if she lost a bet.

"No." she said firmly. "I'm just saying... I won't need longer."

"Hm." replied Draco, poking at the cauldron in front of him. "Pity."

A few minutes of silence passed in which Draco watched Hermione work at cleaning the cauldron. She'd taken off her robes, as the exertion had made them too warm to wear and had rolled up the sleeves of her white button-down shirt. Her tie was flung over her shoulder to keep its bright Gryffindor colours from being stained in cauldron muck.

'_If she'd just bend a little further forward...'_ Draco thought wistfully to himself,_ 'I'd only have to move over one desk to see straight up her skirt...'_

As if sensing his thoughts Hermione turned around to glare at him.

"And why aren't you cleaning?" she asked, irritated. "Did you take Harry's place just to come here and watch me do everything on my own?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Obviously not." he answered, standing. "But there's no way I'm cleaning these things by hand..." He walked over to the teacher's desk.

Hermione sat back on her feet, dropping the rag she was using into the bottom of the cauldron she had been cleaning. "May I remind you," she said, "that the desk is locked."

"Thank-you for that _valuable_ piece of information." Draco responded snidely. He withdrew from his robes a small silver case, and from the case a set of strange tools. He kneeled before the desk and applied them to the lock.

When Hermione realized what he was doing, she could hardly believe it. "Are you picking the lock?" she asked, shocked both that he was breaking the rules and that he, Draco Malfoy of all people, was using muggle tools. "You know how to use muggle lock-picking tools?"

"Apparently." said Draco fairly emotionlessly, not looking up from his work.

"But... Why would you in particular _ever_ learn how to use muggle tools?"

Draco shrugged, ignoring Hermione's amazement. "As a means to an end, I suppose."

Hermione shook her head at his infuriatingly cryptic answer, still having trouble accepting the act she was witnessing. With a soft click the drawer popped open. Draco raised his eyebrows briefly at Hermione in an expression of 'so there' and withdrew his wand, casting '_scourgify' _on all of the cauldrons in the room except the one Hermione was cleaning and the one at Draco's desk.

"We have to look like we're not quite done when he returns, or he won't buy it." said Draco in explanation. He concentrated for a moment and seemed to cast a spell. He quickly replaced his wand in the desk, which locked on its own a few seconds later.

Hermione was impressed. "That was a difficult spell you just cast." she said, "And you did it voicelessly as well. Was that a Clifton delay you placed on the spell, or a Lefevre?"

Draco looked at her blankly. "As if I'd know." he said, sitting back at his desk with the cauldron. "I just saw what needed to be done and did it." He paused, alert. "Snape's coming! Get back to cleaning!"

O0O0O0O

Snape entered the room to see Hermione kneeling on the stone floor, scrubbing diligently at the cauldron in front of her. Draco, sitting at one of the desks, had a dirty cauldron in front of him as well that he was working at slowly. The rest of the cauldrons were clean. Snape cleared his throat, addressing them both.

"You've managed to clean nearly all of them." he said, seeming mildly put out.

Draco allowed himself a grin. "Well it's really thanks to Granger." he said, not sounding humble or grateful in the least. "She's awfully good at cleaning the muggle way. Perhaps she works as a maid or something similar during her summers at home..."

Snape chuckled darkly, watching Hermione, with grime up to her elbows and one spot on her cheek, scrubbing the cauldron and trying to ignore them. "Yes." he said in his usual lazy drawl. "She looks so comfortable down there on her knees. A regular little..." he let the words hang a moment, the left side of his mouth stretching into a slack half-smile, before he finished his sentence. "...Cinderella."

Draco snorted laughter in response while Hermione pursed her lips and continued to ignore them, trying to deny the fact that Snape had just made a sexual joke at her expense.

'_Used to being on my knees...'_ she thought angrily, _'Not bloody likely...'_

For one strange moment Snape caught the desire in Draco's eyes as he watched Hermione cleaning the cauldron and felt a twisted complicity with the boy. He caught a half-image from Draco's mind of the two of them taking advantage of Hermione's on-her-knees position; he standing before her, Draco kneeling behind... He dismissed it, and looked at Draco in disappointment. The boy had to work on occlumency, and not to mention revise the cast of characters in his fantasies.

"I'll be back in another hour." said Snape, disgust creeping into his voice as he cast a quick charm on the lock on his desk. "As soon as the cauldrons are clean my drawer will unlock itself. If you're done before I return, you may leave."

"Yes sir." said Draco. The second Snape had left the room Draco rose from his desk and picked the lock again. It was as simply as "_Scourgify_!" and the cauldrons were cleaned.

"I wanted to finish this one." said Hermione, looking down at the clean cauldron with disappointment.

"You really do enjoy punishment, don't you?" asked Draco, walking towards her.

She looked away, "I was talking during class. I deserved detention." she said stubbornly, speaking around his question.

"I'll punish you then." he said with a smirk.

'_What a ridiculously cheesy thing to say.'_ thought Hermione, but the disdain faded from her mind as she watched Draco walking towards her, his pale eyes full of lust.

She moved to stand.

"Oh, no." he said. "You'll be staying where you are." He caressed her face gently and with a flick of his wand whispered down to her: "Encarcelus."

Ropes sprung from his wand, binding her wrists and ankles.

"Now," he said, unzipping his pants with a chuckle in the back of his throat, "let's try this again."

O0O0O0O

Harry hurried from Quidditch practice, muttering to himself as he went.

"Bloody git... better not touch her... If he does I'm gonna..."

The site that met his eyes as he opened the door to Snape's dungeon classroom left him shocked and mute. Draco Malfoy stood at the front of the classroom, leaning against the teacher's desk, thrusting rapidly into Hermione's mouth. She was bound at the wrist and the ankle, and Draco held onto a handful of her curly brown hair. His thrusts suddenly slowed in an exaggerated way, his movements uneven, his back arched, his eyes squeezed shut, his body rigid from pleasure as he grasped Hermione's hair tighter.

"Mm, Merlin..." he moaned, slowing his thrusts further and withdrawing from her mouth. Harry watched him smile menacingly down at Hermione as he tucked himself back into his pants, "I told you'd I'd use your pretty mouth the way I wanted to."

Draco glanced up to see Harry standing in the doorway.

His green eyes blazed with fury, he was breathing heavily and his wand was at the ready.

"I'M GOING TO _KILL_ YOU!" he yelled.

Draco, realizing the utter honesty with which Harry spoke, reached desperately for his wand.

"EXPELIARMUS!" cast Harry before Draco could get a decent grasp of his wand, sending it flying across the room, and Draco smashing into Snape's desk, wincing in pain at the impact of his lower back to the edge of the desk. Harry marched forward, a berserker's mindless rage in his eyes, and grabbed Draco by the front of his robes, shoving him to the desk onto his back. He raised his wand.

"I'm going to end your life painfully." Harry whispered.

Fear lit Draco's eyes. _'He's cracked. He'll do me for sure...'_

Harry took a breath, preparing to cast God knows what dreadful spell when Hermione cried out:

"STOP IT!"

Harry turned, his expression frightening Hermione.

"You're _defending _him?!" he asked, "After what he _did to you_?"

Panic entered her mind. _'I have to tell him...'_ she thought, _'I have to tell him or he might really kill him...'_

The idea of telling her friends about her relationship with Draco had been dismissed from her mind as a nonpossibility. The idea of telling her friends about the exact nature of the relationship she had with Draco had fled her thoughts even more quickly, as she knew none of them would understand it; least of all Harry.

Harry stared through her, waiting for her answer.

"I- It's, I mean..." She searched for the words that would make this situation better, but none came. She looked downwards in shame. "It's- it's consensual Harry."

"_What?_" he asked, his voice an angry whisper.

She boldly met his gaze. "It's consensual."

Harry released Draco and rounded on Hermione. "You're telling me you let him tie you up and- and _do this to you_?!"

"YES!" yelled Hermione.

Harry only looked angrier. "You let a great bloody creep like Draco Malfoy tie you up and take advantage of you? Do you really expect me to _believe_ th-"

Hermione cut him off, her anger now matching his. "I LET HIM TIE ME UP AND I _LIKED IT_, OK?!"

Draco, still lying on the desk, grinned, a shiver of excitement running through him. His eyes flicked joyfully about the mouldy ceiling of the dungeon as he revelled in his victory.

'_She admits it; take _that_ Potter...' _

An awkward silence fell in the dungeon.

Harry cast a quick spell to cut Hermione's bonds. He helped her to her feet by her upper arm like a father would a misbehaving child and began steering her from the room.

"We need to talk." he growled. "Right now."

He cast a murderous glance back at Draco, who had sat up and was fixing his robes. Draco froze as Harry pointed his wand at him in warning, his eye twitching slightly.

"I'll... I'll deal with you later."

O0O0O0O

"Why?!" asked Harry, confused and angry that his best friend would be sexually involved with his worst enemy.

Hermione wrenched herself from Harry's grasp as the entered the empty hallway.

"I want to have sex, alright? I don't want to be a virgin anymore!"

Harry seemed uncomfortable, but she carried on. "He and I have a 94 percent compatibility; who better than him to take my virginity?"

"For God's sake Hermione," said Harry, exasperated, "if that's all you want, anyone is better than Draco Malfoy. I mean, even I'd be better."

They looked at each other for a moment, half-considering, half-wondering.

Hermione made a strange face and Harry shook his head, saying, "Just forget I ever said that."

"Yeah just..."

"Just no."

"Agreed."

"Too weird."

"WAY too weird."

They considered each other a moment longer. Hermione shrugged and stepped a little closer to Harry..

"... I'll admit I'm a little curious though." she said.

Harry nodded, taking a step forward and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Yeah... me too..." he said.

"But Ginny." said Hermione plainly.

"Yeah." said Harry, in firm agreement. "Ginny."

For all the curiosity in the world neither of them could bring themselves to betray her.

Hermione coughed, and Harry removed his hands.

"What on Earth were we talking about?" he asked.

"Draco." she answered.

Harry sighed. "Look Hermione, sex isn't a very good reason to be with someone..."

Hermione narrowed her eyes in irritation. "I'm not 'with' him Harry... we're only fooling around... It's not as though I want to marry him or something..."

Once again torn between emotions, Harry crossed his arms, looking everywhere but at Hermione. "I guess it's just kinda weird to think of you having sex at all, let alone strange kinky sex with Draco Malfoy..."

She slapped Harry across the face, tears springing to her eyes. "Strange to think of me having sex is it?!" she asked angrily. "I'm not some asexual bookworm you know! I'm- I'm a _young woman_!"

Harry was bewildered and completely out of his depth. "That's not what I meant 'Mione, I swear-"

"I don't think I want to talk to you right now." she said simply, furiously, and walked away.

O0O0O0O

A/N: Oh no! A rift between buddies! Will Harry apologize to Hermione? Will their little talk cause Hermione to reevaluate her ... whatever she has with Draco? Will Harry (GASP_unthinkable_) tell Ron about it? ... and what on Earth is Deia planning for Snape? I sure wish _I_ knew! lol.

Sorry about the delay folks, I hope to get some more of this up soon :)

Hope you all had great holidays!

Planeswalker


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 10: In which Snape gives himself a talking-to, Harry is ahem inspired, and our flame-haired god goes hunting tree-spirits.

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: Sorry I'm so slow between chapters guys!! I've just got so much on my plate these days :'(

All these new crazy twisty plot turns keep coming to me! Waha! It looks like the end, whenever it arrives, is going to be nutso, and probably not at all what most of you want or expect, lol. XD

Enjoy ;)

O0O0O0O

'_God... what the bloody hell am I going to do about this?'_ Harry thought to himself anxiously. A nasty voice in his head whispered: _'Tell Ron. He should know about his...' _but Harry shoved it aside. That would accomplish nothing. Ron would be furious at Hermione and Hermione would be furious at him for having told Ron. That certainly wasn't what he wanted.

The dreadful image of Draco using Hermione that way was stuck fast in his mind's eye; the expression of pleasure on Draco's face etched indelibly on the inside of his eyelids.

"Augh." he muttered to himself, stalking down the hall towards Gryffindor tower looking rather more angsty and troubled than usual.

And what on _Earth_ had that moment between he and Hermione been all about? He flushed.

He supposed he'd had a tiny crush on her once, about the time her front teeth had shrunk and he'd realized she was actually quite pretty... but he'd known all along that Ron had a bigger thing for her (even though Ron didn't know it himself at the time). The crush had waned quickly and only friendship had remained... he thought. He made a face as he walked.

'_...bizarre... getting together with Hermione would be like incest or something...'_

He desperately needed to talk to someone though. Better someone both he and Hermione trusted; Ginny. Surely she would know what to make of all this. He walked quickly for the common room, the scene he had witnessed replaying itself mercilessly as he went, making him both angrier and more aroused. The feeling drove him insane; but he acknowledged it was really impossible for a healthy teenage boy to witness something so explicit and feel otherwise...

Barking the password at an insulted-looking Fat Lady he entered the room and caught Ginny's eye. She started over to him, but once she saw the expression on his face, she slowed a little. Harry couldn't imagine what he looked like at the moment. There was a mix of intense fury and something else in his eyes. He grabbed Ginny by the wrist and as discretely as possible pulled her out of the portrait hole into the hallway, taking out the Maurauder's Map.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

His facial expression combined with the words spoken gave Ginny a shiver.

What was going on?

O0O0O0O

Snape hovered indecisively just outside the door to his dungeon apartments. He received another barrage of paper cranes from Deia, begging him to meet. Each had put Snape in a progressively sourer mood, driving him to invent new and elaborate tortures for each of them as they arrived. This one perished by flame, that one by conjured acid, the one following it by being shredded into tiny pieces transfigured into sharp metal to mail he next... and through all of it he realized: _'Maybe I _should_ speak with her...'_

He had left his apartments purposefully enough, but his drive had withered a measly metre or so beyond the door. He had been pacing since, collecting the messages from the paper cranes as they'd arrived, trying ot read into any possible deeper significance their messages could hold.

After a quarter hour of this frustration, he turned to enter his apartments again. As he did, a familiar voice spoke up:

"Severus, if I could have a word with you?"

Snape wheeled about, livid.

"I know." he seethed. "I _know_. And what's more; I know that _you_ know that _I know._" he began pacing furiously once more. "I should speak to her. Love... your precious _love_ is far more important than my wounded pride."

Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, but Snape rounded on him again, one finger raised.

"You and your damned 'words of wisdom'." he snarled, "You're right! One hundred percent RIGHT! I'll do it, alright? I'll do it!"

Dumbledore watched Snape, who had finally stopped pacing to stand, fists clenched, breathing heavily and glaring through the headmaster with his dark eyes.

"I know not what is troubling you Severus, but I wish you the best of luck with it. I was simply here to inform you that this afternoon's staff meeting has been moved to tomorrow at the same time." Dumbledore gave him a slight nod and a polite smile. "I shall see you then."

With this, Dumbledore turned and walked away.

"Infuriating old man..." Snape muttered to himself, and then headed in the opposite direction, to Deia's apartments.

O0O0O0O

Harry dragged Ginny down the hall.

"Harry..." she began, not knowing exactly what to ask. _'Are you ok? ...um, no. He's not...'_

"...what happened?" she finally finished. Harry's frown deepened as his eyes scanned the map, not looking back at Ginny. He stopped abruptly in front of a men's washroom.

"No one inside." he muttered and pulled her in behind him. "_Colloportus._"

He turned to face her.

"I don't even know where to start!" he said, furious and flustered. "I just can't stop _seeing_ it and it's making me feel-" His features screwed up and he ran a hand through his wiry hair, making it messier than it already was.

Suddenly Ginny found herself being kissed with intensity. She could feel him hard against the inside of her leg.

'_Whoa!'_ her brain cried out, _'Harry is never like this...'_ His fingers were curled so tightly around her shoulders it hurt. He broke the kiss a moment. Between the crackling rage about him and the strange pleading his eyes Ginny divined what he wanted, and obliged him. Swept away by his aggressiveness she spun them around, shoving him into the door. Falling to her knees, she unzipped his pants and set to work. Harry moaned softly and let his head lean back against the door, taking a handful of Ginny's ginger hair in his hand. He came shortly, his breath in uneven gasps.

"Wow." was all he said, zipping up his pants and sliding down the door to sit. He lowered his head a moment, adjusting his glasses and regaining his composure. Ginny shifted to sit beside him.

"What was _that_ all about?" she asked.

Harry looked up, his expression somewhat sheepish.

"Sorry..." he said.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Don't apologize, it was fun." She grinned at him, "You know, every now and then."

Harry smiled a little at this. His smile faded almost immediately. His gaze shifted to an unfixed point across the room.

"I went to get Hermione from her detention... I..." his expression looked painful. "I walked in on them engaged in... augh."

Ginny raised an eyebrow.

"Harry..." she said hesitantly, putting a hand on his knee, "Hermione's a person too... It's not that hard to imagine her having sex or whatever..."

Anger sparked in his eyes.

"And what about if it was with Draco Malfoy?"

Ginny's mouth fell open. She hadn't thought anything would ever come of it... _could_ ever come of it... The two were so different, although nearly perfectly matched according to the Sexual Match Finder. She sighed. Was this the reason Hermione had broken up with her brother? She hadn't spoken with her much lately, their schedules not matching up well. As for Harry, sitting next to her with a look on his face pleading her to tell him it was all going to be alright... she didn't know what to say. She had to talk to Hermione. A horrible thought occurred to her.

"You didn't tell Ron did you?"

"Of course not." said Harry, "I wasn't in any fit state to speak to him."

"True." said Ginny, with a giggle. She slid into Harry's lap, straddling him and unbuckling his belt.

"Whoa, wait!" he said, "We can't _have sex_ in the bathroom!"

Ginny laughed full out. "I just gave you _oral_ sex in the bathroom... we may as well keep on..."

"Well, when you put it that way..." said Harry, smiling slowly.

O0O0O0O

Not too far away, Ron was sitting alone upstairs in his dorm room on his four-poster bed. He had in his hands his red Sexual Match Finder. At the store he'd just grabbed one at random, but it seemed too appropriate he'd end up with red in the end. His hands were trembling slightly; partially from anxiety and partially from anger.

Sitting alone in his room he'd made a few realizations:

He'd let Hermione go without a fight. He gritted his teeth at the thought. He'd _had_ her. She'd been his and he just let her go without a contrary word. The thought caused something to tighten behind his eyes and something to twist deep in his chest.

Secondly, he'd finally wrapped his head around the reason she had left him; because he wouldn't sleep with her. What on Earth could it mean? Was that really the reason? He'd never pegged Hermione as the type of girl to value physical needs over emotional needs...

'_But everyone has their secret sides.'_ he thought to himself, sighing.

He also had the most terrible sneaking suspicion she'd broken up with him for someone else; someone who could give her what he hadn't been able too. The thought made him blind with fury. Hermione was a smart, practical girl; she wouldn't have left him for nothing... for no one...

The SMF shone clear through his anger-blurred vision.

If Hermione had found someone else, then so would _he_.

He wondered for a brief moment whether it was a good idea to find a partner for a lasting relationship with a system designed to match people's sexual desires and then turned on the SMF and pulled up the list of highest matches.

_Apollo's Top Match is: Dryad_

Ron thought to himself a moment, trying to remember where he knew the word 'dryad' from. _'Oh!'_ he remembered all at once, _'Care of Magical Creatures! Those shy little tree creatures...' _He read on:

_His/Her statistics are:_

_- Ability: Fair (Virgin; 2__nd__ base)_

_- Potential: Excellent_

_- He/She can improve by: being less tentative, practising _

_- He/She prefers his/her partners to be: patient, gentle, not too forward_

_- His/Her tendencies are to be: shy, tentative, submissive, adverse to pressure, romantic_

_- Specific target at the moment is: none_

_- Total partners:_ 1 _[Further breakdown provided upon request_

_- Characteristics of his/her ideal partner would be: dominant, patient, relaxed, willing to guide, romantic _

_- Current compatibility with Apollo:_ _78 percent_

Ron smiled somewhat bitterly. _'She sounds just like what I want...'_ he thought to himself, even though the voice at the back of his mind whispered:

'_What you want is a replacement for Hermione.'_

He frowned, ignoring the thought, and speaking his message into the device:

"Do you want to meet?"

O0O0O0O

Snape stood in front of the door to Deia's apartments. He muttered something to himself and turned to leave when he heard the door open behind him and felt a hand placed hesitantly on his shoulder.

"Please Severus..." said Deia, "Let me explain."

Snape let out a long breath, and faced her.

Beautiful.

Her eyes, lined with dark, full lashes looked pleadingly into his own.

He nodded curtly in assent, and entered.

O0O0O0O

A/N: DRAMATIC MUSIC What's gonna happen?!

Sorry that took so long :S I'm up to my eyebrows in schoolwork.

Corabell, TenchiMoete, clairelovesedward, RdHeadGirl, PinkINK1362,1angelette and oreo07: Thanks a lot for your reviews!

There are 29 people who get an alert regarding the updating of this fic and 16 who've added it to their favourites list :) Wowie! Thanks a lot guys! Just to let you know... I receive an average of 5-6 reviews a chapter... I suck at math but, I'm not hearing from a lot of you folks! Let me know what you think! I CRAVE VALIDATION! lols.

See you next chapter!

Planeswalker

PS To Tenchi: The event you requested is coming at the beginning of next chapter :3


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Gods In Love

Chapter 11: In which everybody finally gets on with it.

Disclaimer: I do not own J.K Rowling's magical world of witches and wizards, or any of the characters in it. If you know the series, you will be able to pick out which characters are mine.

Description: In their seventh year, a wizarding sex shop opens for business in Hogsmeade, causing tension among the students and leading to unusual events and pairings (Ron x Hermione x Draco, Snape x ??).

A/N: I'm back!! FROM THE DEAD!!! O_O Well, no. It wasn't that exciting. But the bottom line is, I'm back :3 Sorry about the massive gap and shortness of the chapter. Some of this was written ages ago, and some much more recently... I'll do my best to keep going! The insanity is starting soon, and we're more than halfway done the story!

0O0O0O0

Snape closed the door carefully behind him. His hands were shaking. How on Earth was he meant to be angry with her when she looked at him that way? Her cat-eyed gaze shattered all angry and abrasive thought. She spoke, snapping him out of his contemplation.

"Severus..." she began carefully. "I can imagine finding wedding rings certainly made you question where my devotion lies." Her eyes darted about the room, avoid his dark stare, which was already eroding her perfectly planned speech. The darkness of his eyes filled her mind. She was undone. "S-Severus-" she stuttered, stumbling back into the chair she had in the entrance of her apartments and covering her face with one hand. He took a step forward toward her and hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder. He opened his mouth to ask her if she was alright, but was cut off.

"I love you." she blurted out. The rest of her words came in a rush as tears began to spill from her eyes. "At first it was just about sex but I really love you! I was married off as soon as I graduated from Hogwarts. Arranged of course. My parents had to find an acceptable husband for the only child of the Bane legacy. So I was married to Daniel Sevenstone, a man I loathe. A man with whom I've been forced to share a life." Her eyes, glittering with darkness suddenly snapped up to meet his own as she clutched the hand he had placed on her shoulder. "I'd have killed him... I would have done... if it hadn't been for-"

Snape finally regained his composure and shushed Deia softly, pulling her from the chair and into a fierce embrace. "I'm... I'm sorry." he choked out. "I had no right to behave as I did. It's not as though we decided to have a serious relationship or anything of the sort. It's just that I..." Snape gritted his teeth, wincing, and continued, "I, too, love you... and realized it was possible you didn't belong only to me." Snape breathed shakily. He couldn't think of the last time he had put such personal emotions into words. Deia cried out in happiness and, pulling Snape's face to meet her own, kissed him. She then grabbed him by the hand and began pulling him farther into her apartments.

"Wh-what are you doing?" sputtered Snape, still in shock over the whole ordeal.

She rolled her eyes. "Bringing you to the bedroom of course. We've got a few weeks to make up for after all."

Snape's lips slowly curved into a grin. Now this, he could learn to get used to.

Again, that is.

0O0O0O0

Weeks had passed since Harry had walked in on Draco and Hermione together, and since then he had refused to leave Hermione unattended. He was so deadly serious about getting Hermione to stop thinking about meeting Draco that he'd called off the quidditch practice that week, pleading illness, all the while staying by Hermione's side and looking smarmy and pleased with himself. After finishing her homework in the common room she coldly announced to Harry that she was going to bed and headed for her dorm room.

She wanted badly to see Draco again, but her every attempt had been foiled by her overzealous friend. She bumped into Ginny on the way into their room.

"Hello." she muttered, flopping face down on her bed as Ginny quickly tucked something into her robes. Hermione noticed, but was too frustrated to care. Changing into her pyjamas, she got into bed. With Ginny in the room, there wasn't much she could do to satisfy her frustration either. She grabbed her SMF from her bedside table whispering an angry message to be sent to Draco.

"We have to do something about Harry. I'm going _insane_."

Never in her life did she expect to find herself conspiring against Harry with Draco Malfoy, but she honestly hoped Draco would use his Slytherin resourcefulness so they could get back to getting up to no good...

0O0O0O0O

The next morning as Hermione headed with Ginny towards their classes she was again, predictably distracted by thoughts of Draco. Harry walked a few feet ahead, keeping a shifty-eyed lookout for his nemesis.

Ever touch, every moan, every sigh was ingrained into her memory. Their last encounter in Snape's dungeon was crystal clear: Draco's hands in her hair, the feel of him thrusting between her lips, the tightness of the ropes that had bound her wrists. She smiled to herself as she remembered. A meet punishment.

Suddenly strong painful jerk on her hair snapped her back to reality. She tried to cry out but had already been magically silenced during her reverie.

"Let go of me!" she stammered, releasing the spell on her voice, flailing and trying to dislodge her attacker as he pulled her into a fairly recessed doorway and pressed face-first into the wall. A few students turned, but only looked confused and kept walking.

"Hush, now." a familiar voice whispered into her ear. "They can hear you but they can't see you."

"Agh! What are you doing?" she said in a lowered voice, turning to face Draco as he released her hair. "Was that really necessary? If you wanted to speak to me you could have contacted me with the SMF"

Draco's eyes fair gleamed.

"You told me to do something about Potter." he responded innocently. He grinned and continued, "and I don't want to _talk_ to you." He pressed her up against the wall and kissed her.

The intensity of it nearly made her forget she was in a hallway filled with students.

... nearly.

She shoved him away.

"Now see _here_!" she said, trying to avoid a scene, and reminded him a hallway, crowded with students loitering before class was _not_ the place for this kind of activity, especially when Harry was so close by.

"On the contrary", said Draco. He pressed Hermione into the wall with his superior force. Even through his robes she could feel his hardness. He waited for Harry to notice Hermione's absence. Predictably, he cursed, asked Ginny if she'd seen anything (which she hadn't) ask anyone else if they'd seen anything (which they hadn't) and cause a small sensational scene before disappearing back down the hall from which they'd come originally.

"I'll scream." she whispered, trying to sound angrier than she felt.

Draco cocked a pale eyebrow. "And risk exposing yourself with me in such a situation? I don't think you will." She reached for her wand. Panic. He held it up in front of her. "Looking for this?" He only chuckled as she made a wild grab for it, grinding his hips into hers as she pressed herself against him to reach for it. "Mmm."

"Let me go." she pled, hoping he would release her before she succumbed to such impropriety, his closeness driving her slowly mad.

"Only if you mean it." he said, pausing to nip at her neck. "And you definitely don't mean it. I'm sure you're soaking wet."

She hardly struggled to stop him as he slid his hand into her robes and two fingers deep inside her, groaning softly at the affirmation of his hypothesis.

"You want it as bad as I do." he groaned, thrusting, the fact exciting him even more. "Now," he began again, businesslike, "because of your yappy little guard-dog Potter I've been massively unsatisfied lately." Hermione's pulse quickened. He had been waiting on her? She glanced guiltily around at the students passing by, feeling dreadfully exposed as Draco spoke on. She couldn't help but wonder what spell he'd cast. Some variation of _muffliato_, but tied in to an invisibility charm... the difficulty of the spell was really astounding...

"Are you even listening?" he hissed angrily into her ear, roughly inserting a third finger.

"Y-yes." she stuttered.

"Then what did I just say?" His voice was filled with all the cunning of a snake. Hermione's already flushed face grew redder.

"I don't know."

He leaned in with unexpected speed and then kissed her lips with unexpected softness.

"I'm going to fuck you right here in the hallway."

Her eyes widened. "You will_ not_."

Draco only smirked. She looked down to see him stroking himself already with his other hand. Before she could move to oppose him he hiked her up slightly along the wall and thrusting, sunk into her. She swallowed a cry, grasping his robes for steadiness. God! It felt so many ways at once she didn't know what to think. It hurt; Draco's entire member had just been introduced without gentle prelude into a space thus far only accustomed to fingers. But the pleasure of it was almost as unbearable. Pinned to the wall by his weight, her face buried in his shoulder to dampen her cries, she couldn't have moved even if she'd wanted to. He slid roughly in and out of her tightness. She could feel every inch of him sliding inside her; every second of contact, of friction, transforming her into someone other than herself: a girl who clutched and moaned and clenched and didn't care she would be ruined if caught and only wanted the moment to go on forever until she reached release. Time had become elastic. How long had they been here in the alcove? Hours or minutes? Reaching inside of her cloak he pinched one of her nipples with the hand not supporting her weight. In a moment her pleasure climbed exponentially, exploding into a violent climax. Seconds later, Draco came, shuddering and panting.

There was a moment in which the two of them only breathed heavily and held onto each other tightly, struggling through the aftermath of the explosive encounter. Draco seemed suddenly vulnerable to Hermione in a way that frightened her. After another moment, the demon's spark was back in his pale eyes.

"Y-you used a contraceptive spell, right?" she asked, stuttering a little.

"Yeah." he answered hoarsely. "Of course." And after another pause, "Good luck concentrating in class." He paused to stroke her sweat dampened face and crush her already bruised lips in one more insistent kiss, running a thumb along her jawline. He withdrew rather more quickly than Hermione would have liked, casting a barrage of spells on himself to clean up. He fixed his robes one last time, and throwing a wink to her as he walked away, he informed her the barrier would dissolve when he left it, and then promptly did so, leaving her alone and dishevelled in the now emptying hall.

The inkling of feeling she'd felt for him turned quickly to rage as she quickly cleaned herself up and headed off to class. She wobbled down the hall, all the while somehow certain someone would know what had just transpired. Just before she entered the class she realized: _'I'm not a virgin anymore...' _A smile crept onto her face as she opened the door and entered. Luckily, she always left early for class, so she wasn't late, even considering the... distraction. The moment she entered and everyone looked up to see who it was she was certain their eyes had all lingered on her longer than usual. She flushed. She didn't have this class with Harry, so that confrontation would have to wait until later. She took her usual seat and let the emotions of the day roil in her mind.

0O0O0O0

Ron nervously approached from behind a slight, dark-haired girl just outside the Great Hall and hesitated a moment before tapping her on the shoulder.

"You wouldn't happen to be Dryad?"

She turned, looking up at him with the full force of her dark blue eyes. She was already blushing.

"Yes. I'm Mandy."

Ron grinned. "I'm Ron. I recognize you from Herbology a year or so back."

"You remember me?" she squeaked, playing with the ends of her long hair. Ron nodded, swallowing. She was awfully cute. "I remember you too." she added brightly, "from quidditch, and class and-" she cut herself off. "Well, people know of you."

Ron raised an eyebrow quizzically, and then realized she meant she knew him because he was friends with Harry. Of course. He sighed. It was to be expected. He pointed rather abruptly to the Great Hall.

"You wouldn't like to have a tea, would you?"

Her eyes lit up and her blush deepened at the question. "Why, I'd love to!"

0O0O0O0

Later that day, still bubbling with giddiness, Hermione ran up to their room to tell Ginny the news, but she was not whom she found. Instead, standing in the middle of the room struggling to remove a Hogwarts uniform skirt many sizes too small, was Harry.

"What?!" stuttered Hermione. "You should _not_ be up here!" She noticed he was also wearing a uniform sweater-vest short enough it was exposing his midriff.

"Help me out, will you?" he said impatiently, trying without much success to yank the skirt off. "I only have another fifteen minutes or so."

Hermione tried to form three different sentences, her emotions running from fury to hysteria at how bizarre he looked.

"What, before Ginny's back? Why on _Earth_ would I help you after how you've been treating me?! This is your own problem, get your_self_ out of it!"

Realization crossed his face. He spoke: "It's me, Ginny!"

Hermione thought she felt her brain explode. "...Ginny?! Are you kidding me?!"

"Really!" he (she?) answered, "It's me! I bought this potion from Madame L's. It's like polyjuice, only it only works once and only for a bit. I wanted to find out what's up with Ron, but he won't tell me anything..." Hermione recognized Ginny's plaintive whine in Harry's voice.

'_Too bizarre...'_

"I _thought_ he'd confide in Harry though... The potion worked a lot faster than I expected..." Tears began to fill his eyes."Please 'Mione, help me out here."

She pursed her lips in reply. With a quick slash of her wand the clothing fell to the floor in shreds. Suddenly she was greeted with a great eyeful of Harry. She blushed deeply and turned around, transfiguring the shreds on the ground into a boys' uniform that would probably fit Harry's body.

Ginny-Harry pulled on the pants and told Hermione it was safe to look. "What did I tell you about him?" she said, grinning. "Isn't he's absolutely hun-"

"Yes, yes." said Hermione dismissively, "Now get dressed. We need a plan of action."

0O0O0O0

After asking around the common room the two found out Ron was in the Great Hall for afternoon tea. The two conspirators headed there to find him.

"But Ron never bothers with tea in there." murmured Ginny/Harry, pushing the pair of glasses Hermione had transfigured to look like his up his nose. "He just pinches cakes from the kitchen and eats in the common room."

"Suspicious indeed..." whispered Hermione distractedly. Ginny/Harry stopped suddenly, wheeling to look at Hermione. He spoke loudly:

"There's something up with you. What is it?"

"Shh!" said Hermione, pushing Ginny/Harry along down the hallway and away from the prying eyes of their fellow students. "We have no time to waste and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves but DracoandIhadsexinthehallwaythismorning."

"WHAT?!" shrieked Ginny/Harry, bouncing and clapping his hands. A few students certainly made odd faces at this.

"G-Harry!!" said Hermione severely, "You aren't acting like yourself at ALL today!"

Ginny/Harry took the hint and toned down the reaction.

"Are you _serious_? Did you say in the _hallway_?! Was it amazing? I always figured he had to be. He's such a git, but he had to havesomething going for him..."

Hermione blushed. "I'll explain the hallway bit later, but it actually was kind of amazing..."

"Will you meet him again?"

Hermione paused a moment. "I- I think I might."

Ginny/Harry giggled a little at this until Hermione clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Now hush. You have to act like Harry now, we're here."

They peaked around the corner seeing Ron sitting at one of the tables with a girl in a Ravenclaw uniform.

"Who's that?" asked Ginny/Harry.

Hermione shrugged, looking closer. "She's in our year. Mandy, I think?"

"Ohh. Brocklehurst. She has a younger brother."

"Well," said Hermione impatiently, "get in there!"

Ginny/Harry walked a few steps into the Great Hall, then slowed, glancing desperately back at Hermione, who frowned and pointed at Ron. He continued forward realizing as he approached Ron that he had nothing to say.

"Hey Ron, old boy, how's it going?"

Ron looked up, clearly irritated, but trying to keep the irritation from showing on his face for the benefit of his companion. "I'm a little busy Harry, dear buddy." he responded through clenched teeth.

"Oh, I, uh, apologize..." he smiled weakly at Mandy, who smiled patiently back, and then redirected his attention to Ron. "I was looking for Hermione, are you two on a date by any chance?" he asked, the question hurriedly tacked onto the sentence.

Ron, beginning to respond to the first half of the statement was surprised by the question that followed it. "Erm, yes, we are, Harry. So if you don't mind..."

Ginny/Harry took the hint. "Ah... ha, yes. So sorry to interrupt." He turned to leave and fair ran from the Great Hall back to where Hermione was waiting. "I think I'm starting to change back!" he squeaked, his voice higher than usual.

"Oh, oh dear!" said Hermione, fishing for her wand in her robes. Ginny returned to her normal form all at once, but Hermione was ready with a wand to change her robes and uniform back to their normal size. Hermione glanced around and sighed in relief when she confirmed no one had seen. "There. So?" she asked expectantly.

"Well, it's a date. Ron's on a date."

Hermione felt the smallest twinge in her stomach.

"Well good for him, right?"

Ginny shrugged. "Yup. I suppose." A wicked grin came over her. "Now let's get back upstairs so you can tell me all about this morning."

Hermione could feel her face beginning to colour deeply.

Before she could even nod she heard a familiar voice behind her, furious:

"What about this morning?"

It was Harry.

0O0O0O0

That's all for this chapter!! O M G, I apologize for the wait. Wowee. Talk about taking forever to get around to something!! This month is awfully busy for me, but hopefully I'll have another chapter for you guys sometime before like, 2010. LOL.

Please review!!!

~ Planeswalker


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